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ent  of  the  University  of  North  (^Jarolina 
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IHIS  IITLE  His  BEEN  MICROFILMED 


Form  No.   471 


ENGitwiXO  *  p^rNTI^o. 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER 


Andrew  Johnson, 

(A  SENATOR  FROM   TENNESSEE,) 


DELIVERED    IN   THE 


Senate  and  House  of  Repeesentatives, 


January  12,  1876. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  CONGRESS. 


FORTY-FOURTH  CONGRESS,  FIRST  SESSION. 
1876. 


PROCEEDINGS 


SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


ADDRESSES. 


Addkess  of  Mr.  Cooper,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  President,  upon  me  devolves  the  sad  duty  of  form- 
ally announcing  to  the  Senate  the  death  of  Hon.  Andrew 
Johnson,  late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

On  the  31st  day  of  July,  1875,  near  his  mountain  home 
in  East  Tennessee,  surrounded  by  family  and  friends,  he 
passed  from  earth  to  meet  his  reward.  The  event  was  a 
shock  to  the  people  of  the  State  who  had  so  recently  hon- 
ored him  by  an  election  through  their  representatives  to  a 
seat  in  this  body;  it  w^as  a  shock  to  the  nation,  whose 
highest  offices  lie  had  filled. 

The  conflicts  of  party  in  which  lie  freely  mingled  are 
too  recent  not  to  have  left  deep  scars;  but  throughout 
our  mighty  Republic  everywhere  there  were  those  who 
delighted  to  do  him  honor.  The  greater  part  of  his  life  was 
passed  in  the  public  service;  much  of  that  time  in  the 
councils  of  the  nation;  and  having  almost  reached  his 
three-score  years  and  ten,  the  scnptural  limit  of  human 
life,  he  has  passed  the  portals  of  the  tomb,  been  claimed 
by  the  insatiate  archer,  his  spirit  summoned  to  God  who 
gave  it,  and  his  body  consigned  to  the  place  appointed  for 
the  dead. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  COOPER   ON   THE 


He  will  no  more  go  in  and  out  before  us.  No  more 
will  his  voice  be  heard  in  this  Chamber.  No  more  will 
expectant  friends  crowd  these  galleries,  to  hang  upon  liis 
words  and  catch  the  inspiration  which  he  was  accustomed 
to  impart  to  them  by  the  fervor  of  his  utterances.  Nor 
will  the  Senate  again  be  edified  or  instructed  by  his  expo- 
sition of  the  Constitution,  or  the  enunciation  of  his  opin- 
ions, lucid  and  mature  as  they  always  were.  Life  is  ended. 
The  mortal  has  put  on  immortality,  and  what  he  has  accom- 
plished for  the  good  of  mankind  alone  remains  to  us  of 
this  tribune  of  the  people. 

Senators,  how  frequent  of  late  have  been  these  visits  of 
death  to  this  Chamber!  Since  our  separation  in  March 
last,  once  and  again,  and  yet  again,  has  he  accomplished 
his  mission,  and  three  of  our  associates  been  called  from 
our  assemblies  here  to  meet  the  realities  of  the  future  and 
eternal  life.  The  genial  smile  and  friendly  greeting  of  our 
honored  and  revered  friend,  the  late  Vice-President,  will 
no  more  be  seen  and  felt  by  us.  His  generous  heart  has 
ceased  to  be  affected  by  earthly  woes. 

Nor  shall  we  again  be  permitted  to  listen  to  the  words 
of  wisdom  and  instruction  with  which  the  late  Senator 
from  Connecticut  [Mr.  Ferry]  was  accustomed  to  edify 
and  enlighten  the  Senate.  He,  too,  has  been  called  to 
a  higher  sphere  and  a  nobler  work.  Well  may  we  exclaim, 
in  the  language  of  the  righteous  man  of  Uz,  "Have 
pity  upon  me,  0  ye  my  friends;  for  the  hand  of  God  hath 
touched  me." 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  7 

Few  men  have  been  more  prominent  or  conininnded  to 
a  greater  extent  the  attention  of  the  people  than  Mr. 
Johnson. 

After  his  entrance  upon  pubhc  Hfe  his  career  was  marked 
by  Avarm  friendships  and  fierce  antagonisms.  He  courted 
controversy  and  shrank  not  when  the  contest  came.  In 
this  and  the  other  House  he  was  reckoned  among-  those  who 
contended  for  the  mastery.  He  was  often  in  the  fiercest 
of  the  conflict,  and  was  not  wanting  in  success.  During 
his  terms  of  service  he  participated  in  most  of  the  debates 
which  took  place  upon  the  questions  then  agitated  in  Con- 
gress. He  also  engaged  as  a  public  speaker  before  the 
people  in  all  the  canvasses  which  were  waged  after  he  be- 
came a  public  man.  Few  speakers  excelled  him  in  depth 
of  conviction  or  in  earnestness  of  utterance.  He  exer- 
cised in  an  eminent  degree  the  faculty  of  attracting  the 
attention  of  his  hearers  and  retaining  it  with  unflagging 
interest  to  the  end.  Many  of  his  speeches  have  been  pre- 
served, but  will  fail  to  give  to  those  who  may  read  them 
in  the  future  an  adequate  idea  of  their  power  upon  those 
who  heard  them. 

His  state  papers  while  President  will  be  the  most  lasting 
monument  of  his  claim  to  greatness  as  a  statesman.  Many 
of  them  are  productions  which  have  seldom,  if  ever,  been 
excelled. 

But  this  is  neither  a  suitable  nor  proper  occasion  to  pass 
them  in  review,  or  to  discuss  their  merits,  or  to  compare 
them  with  the  productions  of  others,  or  to  speak  of  the 


ADDRESS  OF   MR.   COOPER   ON   THE 


principles  advocated.  All  this  belongs  to  those  who  may 
come  after  us,  to  those  who  will  write  history,  and  who 
will  assign  each  contestant  for  the  world's  honor  his  proper 
niche  in  the  temple  of  fame. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  conspicuous  in  every  position  in  which 
he  was  placed.  Whether  in  the  halls  of  legislation  or  in 
the  executive  departments  of  government  he  commanded 
attention.  Whether  as  governor,  directing  the  affairs  of  a 
single  State,  or  in  the  presidential  chair,  superintending 
the  affairs  of  this  great  nation,  the  mass  of  his  countrymen 
award  him  the  highest  praise,  and  insist  that  his  conduct 
will  bear  favorable  comparison  with  the  purest  and  best  of 
those  who  preceded  him  in  office. 

His  aim  in  the  discharge  of  the  high  duties  devolving 
upon  him  in  his  exalted  office,  so  far  as  we  can  know  it 
from  official  action,  was  to  know  the  Constitution  and  to 
follow  it.  A  firm  believer  himself  in  the  capacity  of  man 
for  self-government,  and  that  our  form  of  government 
furnished  the  best  model  that  has  ever  been  devised  for 
proving  the  truth  of  the  theory,  he  sought  earnestly  to 
carry  into  j^ractice  its  every  precept.  In  his  opinion  the 
people  may  always  be  trusted  to  do  right.  They  will 
never  do  wrong  intentionally.  And  if  they  do  err,  it  will  be 
through  the  influence  of  trusted  leaders,  and  but  momenta- 
rily;  'Hlieir  second  sober  thought"  will  always  bring  them 
back  to  the  path  of  safety,  rectitude,  and  progress.  To 
them  he  confidently  looked  for  the  remedy  of  any  fault 
which  might  be  developed  in  the  working  of  our  system 


LIFE  AND   CnARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  0 

of  g-ovornment.  lie  trusted  the  people  implicitly,  and 
never  doubted  that  they  would  see  and  })revent  any  suh- 
version  of  their  liberties  or  restraint  of  their  rights  and 
privileges. 

He  was  indeed  a  tribune  of  the  people.  In  his  care 
their  dearest  rights  and  interests  were  secure,  so  far  as 
intentional  injury  upon  his  part  was  concerned.  He  was 
one  of  the  people,  felt  for  them,  sympathized  with  them, 
and,  they  believed,  was  ready  to  do  all  in  his  power  for 
their  political  advancement.  Hence  the  devotion  of  the 
masses  for  him.  The  theater  of  his  power  and  greatness 
was  before  the  masses.  He  swayed  them  by  the  earnest- 
ness of  his  eloquence  and  the  conviction  which  he  aroused 
in  them  of  the  sincerity  of  his  beliefs  and  purposes.  Few 
men  have  shown  greater  power  in  arousing  the  people  and 
attaching  them  to  his  fortunes  than  did  Mr.  Johnson. 
The  secret  lay  in  his  own  firm  convictions  and  his  un- 
wavering belief  in  the  patriotism,  good  sense,  and  integ- 
rity of  the  masses,  that  they  desired  to  do  right  and  would 
do  so  in  the  end,  together  with  the  faculty,  which  he  pos- 
sessed in  an  eminent  degree,  of  impressing  the  truthful- 
ness of  these  convictions  upon  his  hearers.  But  why 
should  I  dwell  upon  that  which  is  so  familiar  to  all  who 
knew  him;  and  who  is  there  to  whom  he  was  unknown? 

His  public  life  is  known  to  all  the  people.  The  most 
trying  scenes  in  it  are  of  too  recent  occuiTence  and  too 
important  in  their  eff'ects  upon  the  nation  to  be  easily  for- 
gotten.    I  will  not  enter  upon  the  vain  task  of  attempting 


10  ADDRESS  OF  MR.   COOPER  ON  THE 

to  add  anything  to  his  fame.  In  this  place,  where  he  was 
SO  well  known,  amid  those  many  of  whom  were  actors  in 
the  most  important  event  of  his  eventful  life,  why  portray 
the  past!  Why  dwell  upon  his  merit,  which  will  now  be 
so  readily  admitted! 

But  he  will  no  more  be  seen  among  us.  He  has  been 
called  to  meet  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth.  The  places 
which  knew  him  here  will  know  him  no  more  forever. 
Another  has  been  called  to  fill  his  vacant  chair  and  charged 
with  the  performance  of  the  duties  which  so  recently 
devolved  upon  him.  "Alas,  how  soon  we  are  forgotten," 
is  a  truth  felt  by  all  who  have  lived  to  man's  estate.  Yet 
there  are  some  the  memory  of  whose  deeds  will  long  sur- 
vive and  whose  names  the  world  will  not  willingly  forget. 
May  we  not  hope  that  our  lamented  colleague  will  be  one 
in  this  roll  of  honor  1  Death  has  purified  his  fame.  His 
faults  will  be  forgotten  and  his  virtues  cherished.  In  this 
spirit  I  lay  my  wreath  upon  his  tomb. 

Mr.  President,  I  offer  for  present  consideration  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

Hesolved,  That  the  Senate  has  received  with  profound  sorrow  the  aunonuce- 
uient  of  the  death  of  Hou.  Andkew  Johnson,  late  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
from  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr.  Johnson,  the 
members  of  the  Senate  will  go  into  mourning  by  wearing  crape  upon  the  left 
arm  for  thirty  days. 

Ecsohed,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr.  John- 
son, the  Seuate  do  now  adjourn. 

Ordered,  That  the  Secretary  communicate  these  resolutions  to  the  House  of 
Representatives. 


LIFE    AND    CIIAKAOTER    OF   ANDREW   JOHNSON.  11 


Address  of  Mr.  Morton,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  President,  as  a  member  of  this  body,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  what  I  regarded  as  a  high  official  duty,  I  voted 
for  tlie  impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson.  I  beheved  he 
had  violated  tlie  law;  and  for  that  vote  I  have  no  excuse 
or  apology  to  offer;  but,  sir,  I  would  let  the  memory  of 
what  I  regarded  as  his  faults  be  buried  witli  him,  and 
choose  to  remember  only  his  virtues  and  his  services  to 
his  country.  I  would  exercise  for  him  the  same  charity 
that  I  would  ask  to  have  extended  to  myself  in  the  inevi- 
table hour. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  a  man  of  remarkable  traits  of  char- 
acter. He  was  distinguished  for  his  tenacity  of  purpose, 
perhaps  for  his  impatience  of  opposition.  He  was  com- 
bative in  his  temperament;  and  that  quality  of  his  mind, 
I  have  no  doubt,  led  him  to  do  many  of  those  things  to 
which  objection  was  taken.  He  was  born  in  the  humble 
walks  of  life;  he  lived  in  poverty,  and  had  no  advantages 
of  early  education.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  his  wife 
taught  liim  to  read.  But  he  was  distinguished  for  his 
thirst  for  knowledge  and  for  an  honorable  ambition,  and 
he  went  up  step  by  step;  first,  holding  an  office  in  the 
town  in  which  he  lived,  and  afterward  in  the  Legislature 
of  Tennessee ;  then  a  member  of  the  other  House  of  Con- 


12  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORTON  ON  THE 


gress,  and  then  a  member  of  this  body.  In  every  position 
hi  Hfe  he  showed  himself  to  be  a  man  of  abihty  and  of 
courage,  and  I  beheve  it  is  proper  to  say  of  Andrew 
Johnson  that  his  honesty  has  never  been  suspected;  the 
smell  of  corruption  was  never  upon  his  garments. 

As  a  member  of  this  body,  in  1858,  he  introduced  a  bill 
granting  a  homestead  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
land  to  every  actual  settler.  He  was  far  in  advance  of  the 
statesmen  of  his  own  section,  and  even  those  of  the  North, 
upon  that  question.  It  was  a  measure  that  was  not  pop- 
ular in  the  South,  for  reasons  which  we  can  all  understand, 
but  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  advert  to  now.  That 
measure  did  not  become  a  law  then,  though  it  did  after- 
ward ;  but  Mr.  Johnson  was  entitled  to  none  the  less  credit 
for  his  early  and  bold  advocacy  of  it.  The  estabhshment 
of  the  homestead  was  almost  an  era  in  tlie  history  of  this 
country.  It  was  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  that  was 
^ver  conferred  by  a  single  act  of  Congress. 

When  the  storm  of  secession  swept  over  the  South  and 
through  this  Hall,  Andrew  Johnson  was  the  only  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  the  Soutli  in  either  House,  so  far  as 
I  remember,  who  resisted  that  wave  and  stood  faitlifully 
to  the  Union.  In  introducing  this  matter,  of  course  I 
desire  to  arouse  no  partisan  feeling  here,  but  simply  to  do 
justice  to  his  history.  It  cost  something  to  be  a  Union 
man  in  the  South.  These  Southern  Senators  can  testify 
to  that.  It  required  courage  and  daring  that  were  not 
required  to  take  a   similar   position  in  the  North.     Mr. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW   JOHNSON.  13 

Johnson  understood  full  well  that  it  would  cost  him  the 
friendship  of  his  life-long  neighbors  in  Tennessee;  that  it 
would,  at  least  for  a  time,  make  him  an  outcast  from  their 
society;  that  he  might  even  become  an  exile  from  the 
State  in  which  he  had  lived  and  which  he  had  so  lono"  and 
so  ably  served;  but  he  stood  in  this  Chamber  and  declared 
his  devotion  to  the  Union,  turned  his  back  upon  those 
seductive  influences  to  go  with  the  South  in  that  terrible 
controversy,  defied  their  threats,  hurled  back  with  indig- 
nation the  epithets  that  had  been  launched  upon  him. 
He  made  a  speech  here  on  the  5th  and  6tli  days  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1861,  which  I  have  taken  the  pains  to  hunt  up.  I 
remember  the  effect  of  those  words  as  they  rang  through 
the  North.  In  the  course  of  that  speech  Mr.  Johnson 
said: 

Sir,  I  intend  to  stand  by  that  flag,  and  by  the  Union  of  which  it  is  the  emblem. 
I  agree  with  Mr.  A.  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  "  that  this  Government  of  our 
fathers,  with  all  its  defects,  comes  nearer  the  objects  of  all  good  governments 
than  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  earth." 

And  again  he  said: 

I  have  been  told,  and  I  have  heard  it  repeated,  that  this  Union  is  gone.  It 
has  been  said  in  this  Chamber  that  it  is  in  the  cold  sweat  of  death ;  that,  in  fact, 
it  is  really  dead,  and  merely  lying  in  state  waiting  for  the  funeral  obsequies  to 
be  performed.  If  this  be  so,  and  the  war  that  has  been  made  upon  me  in  conse- 
quence of  advocating  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  is  to  result  in  my  overthrow 
and  in  my  destruction,  and  that  flag,  that  glorious  flag,  the  emblem  of  the  Union, 
which  was  borne  by  Washington  through  a  seven  years'  struggle,  shall  be  struck 
from  the  Capitol  and  trailed  in  the  dust;  when  this  Union  is  interred,  I  want  no 
more  honorable  winding-sheet  than  that  brave  old  flag,  and  no  more  glorious 
grave  than  to  be  interred  in  the  tomb  of  the  Union. 

Those  were  brave  words  to  be  uttered  by  Andrew 
Johnson  under  the  circumstances.  I  admired  and  hon- 
ored him  at  the  time ;  I  do  so  now,  and  ever  shall.     He 


14  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORTON  ON  THE 

was  a  brave  man,  and  he  encountered  risks  and  subjected 
himself  to  dangers  which  we  of  the  North  scarcely  knew 
anything  about.  Perhaps  no  man  in  Congress  exerted  the 
same  influence  on  the  public  sentiment  of  the  North  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  as  Andrew  Johnson. 

Afterward,  in  the  spring  of  1862,  I  think  it  was  in 
March,  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  him  military  governor  of 
the  State  of  Tennessee.  He  went  there  at  the  imminent 
risk  of  his  life.  He  was  subjected  to  violence,  I  think  at 
Lynchburgh,  on  the  road ;  and  when  he  arrived  at  Nash- 
ville he  was  threatened  with  assassination  on  the  streets 
and  in  public  assemblies ;  but  he  went  on  the  streets ;  he 
defied  those  dangers ;  he  went  into  public  assemblies,  and 
on  one  occasion  went  into  a  public  meeting,  drew  his  pis- 
tol, laid  it  on  the  desk  before  him,  and  said,  ''  I  have  been 
told  that  I  should  be  assassinated  if  I  came  here.  If  that 
is  to  be  done,  then  it  is  the  first  business  in  order,  and  let 
that  be  attended  to."  No  attempt  having  been  made,  he 
said:  ''I  conclude  the  danger  has  passed  by;"  and  then 
he  proceeded  to  make  his  speech.  His  conduct  as  mili- 
tary governor  was  distinguished  for  courage,  for  devotion 
to  the  interests  of  the  Union ;  and  the  admiration  created 
by  his  conduct  throughout  the  North  led  to  his  nomina- 
tion for  Vice-President  upon  the  republican  ticket  in  1864. 
He  was  elected,  and  afterward  became  President  of  the 
United  States  by  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

We  were  personal  friends.  The  first  time  I  ever  met 
Mr.  Johnson  was  in  this  Chamber.     I  was  on  a  casual  visit 


LIFE  AND   CnARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  15 


here,  and  heard  the  debate  in  which  Mr.  Breckinridge 
made  his  final  speech  before  leaving  to  join  the  confeder- 
ate army.  I  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Johnson  then,  and 
from  that  time  we  were  friends.  After  I  had  voted  for 
his  impeachment,  and  met  him  accidentally,  he  wore  the 
same  kindly  smile  as  in  times  before,  and  offered  me  liis 
hand.  I  thought  it  showed  nobility  of  soul.  There  were 
not  many  men  who  could  have  done  that. 

He  has  gone !  We  are  all  soon  to  follow  him.  If  he 
had  his  faults,  let  them  be  buried  with  him.  Let  us 
remember  the  great  services  he  rendered  to  his  country. 
He  was  faithful  to  his  country  in  a  time  of  great  trial, 
and  let  that  fidelity  and  those  great  services  always  be 
remembered. 


16  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  M'CREERY   ON   THE 


Address  of  Mr.  McCreery,  of  Kentucky. 

Mr.  President,  the  Senator  of  Indiana  [Mr.  Morton] 
introduced  his  remarks  by  a  reference  to  the  impeachment 
trial.  I  will  say  that  I  had  the  honor  to  be  one  of  the 
Senators  who  voted  for  acquittal  on  that  occasion.  Like 
him,  I  have  no  apologies  to  make  for  that  vote. 

Death  has  stricken  a  great  name  from  the  roll  of  the 
Senate.  The  providence  of  God  is  over  us,  and  we  bow 
reverently  to  the  dispensation,  even  though  the  bonds  of 
brotherhood  are  broken.  The  mortal  remains  of  Andrew 
Johnson  lie  buried  under  the  soil  of  Tennessee.  His 
record  as  a  statesman  is  finished.  His  career,  with  its 
toils,  its  struggles,  and  its  anxieties,  is  completed.  We 
turn  for  a  few  moments  from  the  discharge  of  our  ordi- 
nary duties  to  make  this  last  sad  offering  to  the  memory 
of  that  extraordinary  man,  and  his  name  and  his  fame  are 
ready  for  history.  He  was  plain  and  simple  in  his  man- 
ners and  tastes,  and  if  it  were  possible  for  him  to  exert  a 
controlling:  influence  over  the  solemn  exercises  of  this 
hour,  he  would  prefer  the  words  of  soberness  and  truth 
to  the  exaggeration  and  extravagance  of  eulogy.  In  the 
walks  of  private  life  he  was  considered  a  good  citizen. 
He  spoke  the  truth,  paid  his  taxes,  settled  his  just  debts; 
he  was  an  honest  man.     So  well  was  he  established  in 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  17 

that  recrard,  that  where  he  was  best  known  his  bitterest 
enemy  would  resent  even  an  insinuation  that  he  had  been 
guilty  of  duplicity,  falsehood,  or  fraud  in  any  of  his  busi- 
ness transactions.  Senator  Brownlow  has  never  been 
conspicuous  for  moderation  in  controversy,  neither  has  he 
been  extravagant,  but,  on  the  contrary,  exceedingly  econ- 
omical and  frugal,  in  the  use  of  compliment  toward  his 
adversaries;  but  that  Senator,  in  the  long  years  of  their 
fierce  antagonism,  not  only  never  assailed,  but  he  never 
failed  on  proper  occasion,  before  or  after  the  death  of 
Johnson,  to  vindicate  his  integi-ity.  Integrity  w^as  the 
foundation  upon  which  he  reared  the  superstructure  of 
his  political  fortune.  He  enjoyed  more  of  the  confidence 
and  respect  than  he  did  of  the  personal  regard  and  esteem 
of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  had  not  the  dash  which  some- 
times elevates  an  empty-headed  demagogue  to  great  pop- 
ularity, which  leaves  him  as  suddenly  and  perhaps  as 
unexpectedly  as  it  was  acquired.  He  wore  a  sad  expres- 
sion, and  his  conversation  was  neither  witty  nor  brilliant, 
but  direct  and  to  the  point.  If  it  possessed  any  charm,  it 
was  due  in  a  measure  to  the  modulations  of  a  clear,  mel- 
low voice,  the  tones  of  which  rose  and  fell  as  passion, 
interest,  or  indifference  predominated  at  the  moment. 
These,  however,  were  not  even  elements  of  his  strength. 
The  people  believed  he  was  honest,  they  knew  he  was 
capable,  and  that  was  enough  for  them. 

If  the  departed  Senator  belonged  to  any  church,  it  must 
have  been  to  the  church  militant,  for  life  with  him  was  a 


18  ADDRESS  OF  3VIE.  M'CREERY  ON   THE 

warfare  from  beginning  to  end.  He  was  aggressive,  un- 
yielding, uncompromising.  When  smitten,  he  forgot  the 
injunction  and  smote  the  smiter,  and  the  battle  was 
measured  by  resource  and  endurance.  Christian  or  Mos- 
lem stood  by  the  symbol  of  his  faith  with  no  more  tenacity 
and  resolution  than  he  displayed  in  defense  of  his  princi- 
ples. He  enjoyed  triumph  with  moderation,  but  it  cannot 
be  said  that  he  bore  defeat  with  true  philosophy.  If  he 
had  reflected  that  position  was  as  desirable  to  others  as  to 
himself,  it  might  have  turned  the  edge  of  his  resentment. 
The  champion  of  popular  rights  had  little  respect  even  for 
a  popular  verdict  adverse  to  himself,  and  a  new  trial  and 
a  re-argument  of  the  cause  were  demanded. 

Justice  to  Andeew  Johnson  requires  at  least  an  allu- 
sion to  his  humble  origin,  to  his  early  orphanage,  and  to 
his^  poverty  at  the  outset  of  life.  He  had  learned  the 
ti'ade  of  a  tailor,  and  the  work  on  the  board  might  be  said 
to  constitute  the  boundary  of  his  useful  knowledge.  But 
an  angel  had  taken  her  place  by  his  side  to  share  his  joys 
and  his  sorrows,  and  to  cheer  and  to  bless  and  to  enlighten 
him  by  her  counsel  and  instruction.  He  labored  diligently 
for  her  support,  and  she  more  than  canceled  the  obligation 
by  gently  dispelling  the  dark  shadows  and  imparting  light 
and  life  and  energy  to  his  understanding.  She  prepared  him 
to  stand  forth  in  the  stature  and  strength  of  manhood,  and 
to  discharge  the  highest  and  most  responsible  duties  of  an 
American  citizen.  He  was  not  the  creature  of  accident 
nor  the  offsprmg  of  chance,  but  a  self-reliant   man,  of 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  10 

steady  purpose  and  iron  will,  who  started  from  the  bottom, 
and  from  a  village  alderman  rose  rapidly  through  the  dif- 
ferent grades  of  the  public  service  to  the  most  exalted 
position  upon  earth.  After  a  few  years  of  private  life  he 
was  returned  by  his  State  to  the  Senate  under  circum- 
stances peculiar  in  some  respects.  He  was  the  first  Ex- 
President  who  had  entered  the  Senate,  and  it  was  under- 
stood that  he  acknowledged  no  special  fealty  and  no  par- 
ticular partiality  to  any  political  organization.  Much  was 
expected  from  him.  Whether  the  highest  hopes  and 
expectations  of  his  friends  and  admirers  would  have  been 
realized  or  not  is  a  matter  of  conjecture  concerning  which 
every  man  will  enjoy  his  own  opinion. 

I  never  heard  a  speech  from  him  until  a  short  time  before 
our  final  separation.  That  speech  was  published  as  deliv- 
ered, without  revision  or  coiTection.  Critics  may  discover 
redundancy  and  repetition,  but  we  who  heard  it  know 
that  it  was  a  powerful  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  Constitution. 
Other  speakers  may  have  been  as  logical  and  as  eloquent, 
but  no  man  spoke  with  more  earnestness  than  he  did. 
He  related  no  anecdotes,  and  aimed  at  no  pleasantries ; 
but  voice,  manner,  and  diction  rose  to  the  level  of  the 
great  question  he  was  considering,  and  Senate  and  galler- 
ies listened  with  profound  attention.  The  unvarying 
earnestness  of  his  delivery  may  have  been  the  secret  of 
his  power  and  the  key  to  his  strong  hold  upon  the  confi- 
dence of  the  people  of  Tennessee.  But  speculation  is 
idle ;  we  only  know  that  from  a  most  unpromising  begin- 


20  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  M'CREERY  ON   THE 

ning  he  accomplished  surprising  and  wonderful  results. 
When  he  went  to  Greene ville  he  was  a  stranger,  and  a 
tailor's  "kit,"  his  thimbles  and  his  needles,  were  probably 
the  sum-total  of  his  earthly  possessions;  at  liis  death,  the 
hills  and  the  valleys  and  the  mountains  and  the  rivers 
sent  forth  their  thousands  to  testify  to  the  general  grief  at 
the  irreparable  loss. 

I  honor  him  for  that  manly  courage  which  sustained 
him  on  every  occasion,  and  which  never  quailed  in  pres- 
ence of  opposition,  no  matter  how  imposing.  I  honor  him 
for  that  independence  of  soul  which  had  no  scorn  for  the 
lowly  and  no  cringing  adulation  for  the  exalted.  I  honor 
him  for  that  sterling  integrity  which  was  beyond  the 
reach  of  temptation,  and  which,  at  the  close  of  his  public 
service,  left  no  blot,  no  stain  upon  his  escutcheon.  I 
honor  him  for  that  magnanimity  which,  after  the  war- 
cloud  had  passed  and  the  elements  had  settled,  would 
have  brought  every  citizen  under  the  radiant  arch  of  the 
bow  of  peace  and  pardon. 

It  is  the  province  of  patriotism  to  guard  the  ashes  and 
to  cherish  and  perpetuate  the  memories  of  the  mighty 
dead.  Every  locality  has  its  particular  treasures.  Jack- 
son, Polk,  and  Johnson  !  Will  these  names  be  forgotten 
in  Tennessee  1  The  sun  and  the  stars  will  shine  in  their 
seasons,  but  revolving  years  will  neither  quench  nor  dim 
the  liglit  of  their  great  examples. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  21 


Address  of  Mr.  Merrimon,  of  North  Carolina. 

Mr.  President,  it  seems  to  me  appropriate  that  the  voice 
of  North  CaroHna  should  join  in  these  solemn  ceremonies. 
There  our  late  associate,  the  late  Ex-President  Johnson, 
was  born,  and  there  he  began  his  remarkable  career  which 
rendered  him  famous  in  this  and  other  lands.  The  people 
of  that  State  watched  with  more  than  ordinary  interest  his 
eventful  life — sometimes  approvingly  and  at  others  with 
disapprobation;  they  recognized  his  marked  ability,  his 
industry  and  self-reliance,  his  courage  and  fortitude,  his 
firmness  and  integrity,  his  successes  and  his  triumphs; 
they  condemned  his  faults,  but  over  them  they  have  cast 
the  mantle  of  charity  and  forgetfulness,  and  they  have 
shared  largely  and  sincerely  in  the  general  sorrow  occa- 
sioned by  his  sudden  death. 

My  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Johnson  began 
shortly  after  I  became  a  member  of  the  Senate;  it  was 
brief  and  agreeable,  and  served  to  strengthen  my  impres- 
sions of  his  character  derived  from  a  general  knowledge  of 
him  for  a  long  while  as  a  prominent  public  man.  He  was 
not  only  a  distinguished  citizen,  but  in  many  respects  lie 
was  one  of  the  great  men  of  his  country  and  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived.  His  cast  of  mind,  his  character,  and  suc- 
cesses in  life  present  an  interesting  study  in  connection 


22  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MERRIMON  ON  THE 

with  our  political  institutions  and  their  pecuHar  workings 
in  the  development  of  the  talents  and  vu'tues  of  men  in 
every  class  and  condition  of  society.  He  did  what  few 
have  accomplished  in  the  course  of  time.  From  a  birth, 
a  boyhood,  and  circumstances  the  most  humble  and  unto- 
ward, without  aid  and  without  extraordinary  advantages 
at  any  period  of  his  life,  often  under  the  frowns  of  the 
great  and  powerful,  by  the  exercise  of  his  own  powers  and 
his  own  efforts,  he  passed  gradually,  and  always  with  dis- 
tinction, through  stations  small  and  great  until  he  reached 
and  filled  with  striking  ability,  and  under  circumstances 
the  most  trying,  one  of  the  most  exalted  on  earth. 

Without  intending  here  to  approve  or  disapprove  his 
general  course  of  action,  if  we  consider  fairly  the  extraor- 
dinary, perilous,  and  revolutionary  circumstances  that  sur- 
rounded the  country  at  the  time  he  filled  the  high  station 
of  President,  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  any  of  the 
great  men  who  at  different  periods  filled  that  place  could 
have  ruled  and  subdued  the  storm  of  passion  and  partisan 
fury  that  threatened  to  ingulf  the  Government  more  suc- 
cessfully than  he  did.  Whatever  the  unfriendly  critic  may 
say,  all  disinterested  men  will  agree  that  he  filled  most  of 
the  many  stations  he  occupied  with  great  acceptability  and 
all  of  them  with  great  credit  to  himself.  I  think  it  may 
be  fairly  said  of  him  that  in  all  the  responsible  places  he 
filled  he  never  failed  to  prove  himself  equal  to  the  duties 
devolved  upon  him.  Doubtless  he  did  not  discharge  them 
acceptably  to  all;  but  all  must  admit  that  he  did  so  with 


LIFE  AND   OHAEACTEB  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  2'S 

distinguished  ability.  For  his  elevation  and  distinction 
he  was  not  indebted  to  any  sudden  freak  of  fortune  in  arms 
or  civil  life,  but  to  his  native  talents,  his  efforts,  and  his 
persistency  in  sunshine  and  storm  alike.  He  lacked  the 
polish  of  high  culture  and  training,  but  he  possessed  in  a 
large  degree  the  moral,  intellectual,  and  physical  power  to 
command  fortune.  This  epitome  of  his  life  marks  him  one 
of  the  strong  and  great  men  of  his  age. 

Mr.  Johnson  possessed  a  strong,  logical,  and  aggressive 
mind  and  a  powerful  will.  He  had  stern  irltegrity,  which 
he  carried  into  all  the  relations  of  life;  indeed,  this  was 
one  of  his  leading  and  striking  characteristics;  he  was 
remarkable  for  his  honesty,  and — 

To  be  bouest,  as  tbis  world  goes,  is  to  be  one  mau  picked  out  of  ten  tbousaud. 

His  moral  and  physical  courage  was  unbending,  often 
rising  to  heroism.  The  adverse  circumstances  of  his  early 
life  deprived  him  of  the  essential  advantages  of  youthful 
education  and  training,  but  he  overleaped  this  obstacle; 
he  was  self-educated;  he  had  not  the  finish  of  systematic 
culture,  nor  could  he  claim  great  learning,  but  he  thought, 
wrote,  and  spoke  strongly  and  intelligently  on  all  subjects 
that  engaged  his  attention.  Some  of  his  state  papers  will 
compare  favorably  with  the  best.  He  had  an  extensive 
and  correct  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  large  insight 
into  the  motives  of  men.  He  measured  them  at  a  glance 
mentally  and  morally,  and  generally  with  singular  accu- 
racy. He  had  administrative  capacity  of  no  ordinary 
mold  or  measure. 


24  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MERRIMON   ON  THE 

He  was  always  thoroughly  and  honestly  in  sympathy 
with  the  masses  of  the  people  and  popular  government. 
He  was  essentially  a  man  of  the  people;  and  however  he 
may  sometimes  have  erred  in  judgment  looking  to  that 
end,  he  zealously  desired  their  welfare  and  happiness. 
He  made  them  believe  so,  and  this  may  be  reckoned  one 
of  the  strongest  elements  of  his  power  with,  before,  and 
over  the  masses  of  his  fellow-countrymen.. 

He  made  mistakes,  some  of  them  grave  ones ;  but  who 
is  free  from  error?  He  had  faults;  he  may  have  had 
serious  ones;  it  were  strange  indeed  if,  under  the  conflicts 
and  temptations  of  his  life,  he  were  free  from  them.  And 
let  me  ask,  Avhat  man  of  us  is  free  from  them?  His  virtues 
and  pariotism  far  outweighed  and  outmeasured  his  errors 
and  follies.  Let  ns  keep  fresh  in  our  memory  the  fonner, 
and  over  the  latter  let  the  mantle  of  charity  be  cast. 

I  well  remember  how  on  the  4th  of  March  last,  when 
he  entered  this  Chamber  to  take  his  seat  agrain  as  a  mem- 
ber  of  the  Senate,  his  countrymen,  crowding  the  galleries 
and  corridors,  saluted  him  with  loud  and  spontaneous  ap- 
plause, and  how  they  did  a  second  time,  when  he  stej^ped 
forward  to  be  sworn.  Admiring,  tasteful,  and  delicate 
friends  had  richly  adorned  his  desk  with  beautiful  and 
expressive  flowers,  and  when  that  day  the  Senate  adjourned 
hundreds  of  his  friends,  and  men,  too,  who  had  in  the  past 
been  unfriendly  toward  him,  hurried  to  his  seat  to  tender 
him  respect  and  sincere  congratulations.  That  was  a 
grand  occasion  for  him,  and  his  heart  was  glad! 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOnNSON.  25 

He  was  not  an  aged  man.  His  friends  had  hoped  that 
he  would  be  spared  to  his  country  many  years  to  come 
to  do  much  and  noble  service  for  that  country.  But  his 
work  is  done;  his  labors  are  ended.  Death  suddenly 
snatched  him  away  from  the  scenes,  the  conflicts  and  sor- 
rows, the  pleasures  and  the  honors  of  this  life,  and  he  is 
gone  to  try  the  realities  of  eternal  things.  May  his  coun- 
trymen remember  and  emulate  his  virtues  and  his  noble 
deeds. 


20  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  PADDOCK  ON  THE 


Address  of  Mr.  Paddock,  of  Nebraska. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  with  no  ordinary  diffidence  that  I 
arise  to  address  the  Senate  upon  an  occasion  of  so  much 
interest  as  the  present.  The  fear  that  I,  who  have  so  re- 
cently come  among  you,  may  commit  an  offense  against 
the  proprieties  which  should  be  as  a  law  unto  us  all  in  this 
Chamber,  almost  overwhelms  me.  Indeed,  sir,  so  much 
has  already  been  so  appropriately,  so  eloquently  said  by 
my  seniors  here,  whose  fame  is  the  very  fame  of  the  Re- 
public itself,  that  my  poor  words,  however  fitly  spoken, 
will,  I  doubt  not,  be  considered  presumptuous.  But,  sir, 
I  am  impelled  by  a  sense  of  duty  to  the  State  I  have  the 
honor  to  represent,  in  part,  upon  this  floor,  to  briefly  ex- 
press, on  the  behalf  of  all  the  people  thereof,  of  whatever 
party,  sect,  or  class,  the  universal  sorrow  occasioned  there 
by  the  death  of  Andrew  Johnson.  Especially,  sir,  do  I 
offer  here  for  the  memory  of  the  departed  Senator  the 
gratitude  and  the  unselfish  reverence,  homely  though  it 
be,  of  the  thousands  in  my  State  who  to-day  occupy 
farms  of  broad  fertile  acres  secured  to  them  through  the 
beneficent  provisions  of  the  homestead  law.  They,  sir,  and 
the  generations  that  are  to  come  after  them,  will  ever 
hold  in  grateful  remembrance  his  manful  advocacy  of  the 
principles  of  that  law  long  before  its  enactment.     At  a 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  27 


time,  sir,  when  it  had  few  if  any  friends  but  himself,  and 
seeming-ly  but  Httle  to  hope  from  the  future,  Andrew 
Johnson  pointed  the  way,  and  the  repubhcan  party,  to  its 
honor  and  its  glory  be  it  said,  afterward  followed  therein 
until  this  srreat  boon  for  the  homeless  and  the  landless 
was  secured. 

Mr.  President,  I  recall  to-day  a  reminiscence  of  unusual 
interest  to  myself,  at  least.  Will  you  indulge  me  while  I 
refer  to  it  1  On  the  sixth  day  of  next  month  fifteen  years 
will  have  passed  since  in  company  with  another  gentle- 
man, both  of  us  citizens  of  the  then  sparsely-settled  Ter- 
ritory of  Nebraska,  I  sat  in  yonder  gallery,  electrified  by 
the  patriotic  eloquence  of  Andeew  Johnson.  That,  as  I 
remember,  was  my  first  visit  to  this  Chamber ;  certainly 
his  great  speech  for  the  Union,  deHvered  upon  that  occa- 
sion, was  the  first  to  which  I  ever  hstened  here.  On  the 
5th  day  of  last  March  I  met  Andrew  Johnson  upon  this 
floor,  after  his  long  absence  from  the  Senate.  We  met 
here  then  as  Senators-elect,  and  when,  together,  we  swore 
to  uphold  the  Constitution  of  our  country,  my  memory 
went  back  over  the  eventful  interval  of  time  that  had 
elapsed,  and  the  patriot  statesman,  who,  alone  of  all  his 
section,  had  stood  bravely  up  from  out  the  very  ranks  of 
secession  on  yonder  side,  and,  with  firm  but  tearful  utter- 
ance, proclaimed  his  unalterable  fealty  to  the  Union  and 
the  old  flag,  was  again  before  me.  My  companion,  too, 
of  the  gallery  was  here ;  I  meet  him  now  as  my  colleague 
upon  this  floor;   we  were  here  together  to  represent  a 


28  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   PADDCJCK   ON  THE 

State  containing  nearly  half  a  million  of  people,  a  sov- 
ereignty which  did  not  exist  when,  upon  that  memorable 
occasion  to  which  I  have  adverted,  Andrew  Johnson  de- 
nounced secession  and  disunion  with  so  much  power  and 
vehemence  ;  the  rebellion  had  come  and  gone,  bearing  its 
full  fruition  of  direful  consequences,  as  he  did  then  pre- 
dict ;  a  river  of  blood  had  carried  between  its  full  banks, 
upon  a  resistless  tide,  the  worn  and  battered  hulk  of  slav- 
ery far  into  the  sea  of  perdition.  The  Union  was  re- 
stored, re-invigorated  by  the  rich  draughts  it  had  drawn 
fresh  from  the  fountain  of  liberty,  and  the  great  army  of 
American  civilization,  with  "  standards  full  high  ad- 
vanced," was  moving  forward  to  new  centenary  conquests. 
That,  sir,  was  a  moment  of  intensest  interest  to  my  whole 
nature  for  the  reflections  it  induced,  as  this  is  one  of  pro- 
foundest  sorrow  for  the  memories  that,  crowding  mourn- 
fully each  upon  the  other,  have  taken  full  possession  of 
us  all. 

Mr.  President,  I  believe,  sir,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  a  painful  chapter  of  history  relating  to  the  official 
acts  of  Andrew  Johnson  was  made  in  this  very  Chamber, 
that  no  Senator  here  present  will  refuse  to-day  to  join  me 
in  the  declaration  that  he  was  essentially  an  honest  man ; 
ay,  sir,  a  patriot  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term.  It  is 
true,  indeed,  sir,  that  he  possessed  his  full  share  of  the 
weakness  by  which  human  nature,  wherever  found,  in  its 
highest  as  well  as  its  lowest  estate,  is  always  beset.  And 
yet,  sir,  who  among  us  will  undertake  to  exalt  himself 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  29 

above  his  fellows  in  respect  of  his  freedom  therefrom'? 
Speaking  for  myself  alone,  I  do  frankly  admit  that  upon 
sudden  impulse,  under  great  excitement,  I  have  spoken 
Avords  and  performed  acts  which  I  would  gladly  expunge 
from  life's  record,  and  thank  my  God  upon  bended  knees 
for  the  opportunity  so  to  do.  Who  of  you,  brother  Sen- 
ators, will  say  less  than  this  for  himself?  Who  of  you 
will  undertake  ta  say  more  than  this  of  Andrew  Johnson? 
To-day,  sir,  the  voice  of  party  is  hushed,  and  the  war  of 
factions  and  policies  is  forgotten,  while,  as  mourners  as  of 
a  common  brotherhood,  Ave  all  do  pause  before  the  new- 
made  grave  of  Andrew  Johnson  to  drop  the  tear  of  sad 
remembrance.  His  ashes  now  ming-le  Avith  the  soil  of  the 
State  he  loved  so  well  and  served  so  faithfully  in  the 
Union  he  helped  to  save,  but  his  spirit  has  gone,  Avith  those 
of  Wilson  and  of  Ferry,  to  unite  Avith  those  of  Lincoln 
and  Seward  and  the  other  immortal  patriots  who  Avent 
before  in  that  invisible  spiritual  aggregation  Avhence  Ave 
are  to  draAv  the  inspiration  which  shall  quicken  here  the 
development  and  the  growth  of  a  higher,  a  purer  civil- 
ization, and  a  stronger,  a  nobler  nationality.  God  speed 
the  day,  sir,  when,  by  the  aid  of  this  inspiring  influence, 
the  popular  sentiment  of  our  country  as  Avell  as  its  ethics 
shall  demand  of  politicians,  of  statesmen,  of  parties,  and 
that  political  power,  the  press,  the  exercise  of  the  broadest 
and  the  fullest  Christian  charity  in  all  their  intercourse 
each  toAvard  the  other. 


30  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BOGY   ON   THE 


Address  of  Mr   Bogy,  of  Missouri. 

Mr.  President,  having  held  an  important  position  under 
Mr.  Johnson  while  he  was  President  of  the  United  States, 
I  was  frequently  brought  in  contact  with  him,  and  I  had 
for  this  reason  a  good  opportunity  to  form  an  estimate  of 
his  abilities  and  to  study  the  main  characteristics  of  his 
mind  and  the  great  outlines  of  his  general  character.  A 
sense  of  duty,  growing  out  of  this  official  connection,  im- 
pels me  to  say  a  few  words  on  this  occasion.  I  do  this 
with  great  diffidence,  not  only  because  of  my  inability  to 
do  justice  to  the  subject,  but  also  because  I  follow  other 
Senators  who  have  spoken  with  much  more  eloquence 
than  I  pretend  to  possess. 

That  our  late  brother  was  a  remarkable  man  is  a  fact 
which  is  beyond  all  doubt,  and  which  no  one  will  contest; 
indeed,  his  singularly  remarkable  career  is  enough  to  estab- 
lish this.  In  my  opinion,  it  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that 
this  career  has  no  parallel  in  history  in  this  or  any  other 
country,  nor  in  this  or  any  other  age  of  the  world.  For,  al- 
though history  has  preserved  and  transmitted  to  us  the  names 
of  many  men  born  in  obscurity  and  in  the  humblest  station 
in  life  who  attained  the  very  highest  positions  in  their 
country,  yet  in  most  instances,  if  not  in  every  one,  these 
men  were  thrown  up  as  it  were  by  the  force  of  great  events 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    ANDREW   JOHNSON.  .51 

with  which  they  were  in  some  way  connected,  and  in  most 
cases  these  remarkable  ascents  of  men  from  obscurity  to 
distinction  were  of  military  characters.  History  informs 
us  that  several  of  the  emperors  of  Rome,  when  it  was 
the  mistress  of  the  civilized  and  barbarian  world,  were 
born  in  slavery.  Pizarro,  a  hog-driver,  became  the  con- 
queror of  Peru,  and  his  name  will  live  in  the  annals  of 
history  forever.  And  yet  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
the  rise  of  the  Roman  slave  or  of  the  young  hog-driver; 
great  events  Avith  which  they  were  connected,  and  which 
they  had  the  genius  to  control,  made  them  what  they 
were.  But  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Johnson  his  rise  from  ob- 
scurity to  distinction  through  a  long  gradation  of  offices 
and  to  a  seat  in  this  body  was  the  work  of  his  own  hands 
and  the  legitimate  results  of  his  own  unaided  exertions  and 
great  native  ability.  He  was  truly  the  sole  architect  of  his 
own  fortunes.  No  fortunate  or  singular  circumstances 
favored  his  election  as  alderman  of  his  village  nor  as  mayor, 
or  his  election  as  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  his  State, 
or  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States,  nor  as  governor  of  his  State,  and  finally  to  a  seat 
in  this  body  as  an  American  Senator.  Up  to  this  time  it 
can  be  truly  said  that  he  carved  his  own  fortunes  alone 
and  unaided  by  any  adventitious  circumstances  of  any 
kind.  Will,  pluck,  and  ability  were  the  weapons  he 
Avielded  to  accomplish  his  purposes;  and  we  are  informed 
from  his  well-known  history  that  he  attained  the  ends 
which  he  aimed  to  accomplish,  not  by  intrigue  or  cunning, 


32  ADDRESS   OF  ME.  BOGY  ON   THE 

but  by  a  stern  and  manly  course,  meeting  his  opponents 
and  all  opposition  boldly  and  defiantly,  and  so  far  from 
attempting  to  avoid  opposition,  inviting  it  Indeed,  his 
combative  temper  always  brought  about  very  great  oppo- 
sition. This  he  seemed  to  enjoy.  He  loved  the  excite- 
ment of  a  warm  political  contest,  and  for  it  he  was  most 
singularly  adapted — a  ready  debater,  quick  at  repartee,  a 
naturally  close  reasoner,  having  a  profound  knowledge  of 
the  heart  of  the  people  among  whom  his  lot  was  cast, 
ready  and  able  to  take  advantage  of  any  favorable  circum- 
stance which  presented  itself  He  went  before  the  people 
with  views,  and  opinions  of  his  own,  advocating  them  boldly 
and  ably,  and  was  always  willing  and  ready  to  stand  or 
fall  with  them,  and,  although  a  democrat,  very  seldom,  if 
ever,  in  line  with  his  party.  He  was  not  a  demagogue, 
but  he  always  presented  himself  as  the  friend  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  particularly  of  the  poor  and  humble.  That  in 
presenting  himself  on  all  occasions  as  the  friend  of  the 
poor  and  humble  he  was  honest  and  sincere,  admits  of  no 
doubt.  His  own  humble  birth  and  the  circumstances  sur- 
rounding his  early  years  were  enough  of  themselves  to 
impart  to  his  peculiar  nature  a  feeling  of  sincere  love  and 
sympathy  for  this  portion  of  his  fellow-men.  He  was  one 
of  them,  and  his  sympathy  for  them  was  natural.  And 
this  sympathy  he  exhibited  during  his  long  political  life. 
Yet  this  by  itself  would  not  be  sufficient  to  account  for  his 
extraordinary  success. 

I  said  at  the  outset  that  my  official  position  while  he  was 


LIFE   AND   CnARACTER   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  33 

President  of  the  United  States  enabled  me  to  form  an  esti- 
mate of  his  abihties  and  of  his  general  character.  While 
his  abilities,  in  my  opinion,  were  not  of  the  very  liighest 
order,  yet  they  were  very  far  above  the  common  run  of 
men,  and  indeed,  when  his  want  of  early  training-  is  con- 
sidered, they  might  well  be  considered  as  extraordinary. 
I  did  not  think  that  his  perceptive  faculties  were  very 
quick,  but  he  possessed  great  natural  power  of  elabora- 
tion, and  he  worked  out  his  conclusions  by  serious  and 
laborious  thinking.  He  made  the  impression  on  me  of  a 
great  thinker,  and  was  willing  to  do  a  great  deal  of  hard 
work  in  this  way.  When  his  mind  was  fully  made  up  he 
was  as  firm  as  a  rock,  and  nothing  on  earth  could  shake 
him.  It  may  be  that  he  indeed  carried  this  too  far,  and 
he  was  in  consequence  of  this  considered  by  some  as  head- 
strong and  stubborn.  His  moral  courage  was  great;  was, 
indeed,  sublime.  I  well  remember  that  during  the  darkest 
period  of  his  life,  when  he  appeared  to  be  abandoned  by 
all,  he  never  expressed  a  doubt  of  his  final  triumph;  and 
that  this  was  not  assumed  but  was  really  felt  was  shown 
by  his  deportment  and  bearing.  I  have  reason  to  believe 
that  his  physical  courage  was  as  great  as  his  moral.  Hence 
he  was-  truly  and  essentially  a  brave  man,  willing  and 
ready  to  risk  his  life  and  political  fortunes  to  carry  out  his 
object;  and  in  my  opinion  this  had  much  to  do  in  securing 
his  long  life  of  success. 

It  is  said  that  he  never  was  at  school,  not  even  for  a  day, 
and  that  his  wife,  who  survives  him,  was  his  first  instructor. 


34  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BOGY  ON  THE 

If  this  be  true,  his  long  and  successful  career  must  have 
been  a  source  of  great  happiness  to  her,  and  she  must 
have  shared  his  great  and  long-continued  honors  with  most 
sing-ular  satisfaction.  That  his  education  was  under  the 
circumstances  imperfect  is  easily  nnderstood;  yet  he  did 
much  to  repair  this  by  very  general  reading.  I  had  occa- 
sion to  spend  many  evenings  with  him,  and  1  then  observed 
that  his  reading  was  pretty  extensive,  although  desultory. 
To  say  that  his  memory  was  good  is  not  enough.  At  the 
time  I  speak  of  it  was  truly  remarkable,  and,  as  he  had 
served  many  years  in  Congress  during  the  days  of  Calhoun, 
Clay,  Webster,  Benton,  Grundy,  and  many  others  of  the 
distinguished  men  of  that  most  brilliant  period  of  our  his- 
tory, he  could  relate  many  very  interesting  events  con- 
nected with  them,  some  of  a  political  nature,  some  social, 
and  others  anecdotical.  On  such  occasions  he  was  ex- 
tremely genial  and  amiable,  enjoying  a  hearty  laugh  as 
much  as  any  one  I  ever  knew.  He  possessed  good 
powers  of  relating  past  events  or  anecdotes.  I  observed 
one  thing,  that  in  speaking  of  those  great  men  with 
whom  he  had  become  acquainted  in  this  city  during  his 
long  congressional  career,  he  did  so  kindly  and  respect- 
fully, doing  full  justice  to  their  abilities  and  to  their 
motives. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  singular,  but  it  is  true,  that  he  filled 
every  office  which  a  man  can  fill  in  this  country,  munici- 
pal. State,  and  Federal,  civil  and  military,  judicial,  (as 
mayor,)  legislative,  and  executive,  from  the  lowest  to  the 


LIFE   ANT)   CHARACTER   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  35 


highest,  from  alderman  of  a  small  village  to  the  governor- 
ship of  his  State,  major-general  in  the  Army  during  the 
war,  and  finally  Vice-President  and  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  last  two  offices,  however,  were  not 
the  result,  like  the  others,  of  his  own  individual  labors. 
Circumstances  growing  out  of  the  war  had  no  doubt  much 
to  do  with  his  selection  as  a  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency, and  we  all  know  that  a  circumstance  with  which  he 
was  in  no  way  connected  made  him  President.  But  his 
last  election  to  a  seat  on  this  floor  as  Senator  was  the  work 
of  own  hands,  brought  about  by  his  own  indomitable  will 
and  pluck,  the  reward  of  a  long  and  terrible  contest,  con- 
tinuing for  some  years,  unsuccessful  for  a  time,  and  appear- 
ing to  all  the  world  besides  himself  as  utterly  hopeless; 
nevertheless,  finally  he  was  triumphant.  From  what  I 
have  learned  from  those  who  are  familiar  with  this  his  last 
contest,  he  exhibited  more  openly  his  true  and  peculiar 
nature  than  at  any  other  period  of  his  life — which  was  to 
fight  with  all  his  might  and  all  his  ability,  asking  for  no 
quarter  and  grantingnone;  and  although,  like  bloody  Rich- 
ard, now  and  then  unhorsed,  still  to  fight  and  never  sur- 
render until  victory  perched  on  his  banner.  Under  all  the 
circumstances  connected  with  his  previous  life — particu- 
larly while  he  was  the  Chief  Executive  of  this  country — 
this  last  triumph  must  have  given  him  more  sincere  and 
deeply-felt  gratification  than  any  other  of  his  life.  He  is 
the  only  one  of  the  number  of  distinguished  men  who 
have  held  the  office  of  President  who  afterward  became  a 


36  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   BOGY   ON   THE 

member  of  this  body.  Even  in  this  his  fortune  appeared 
to  be  singular. 

I  have  thus,  Mr.  President,  in  a  brief  and  imperfect  man- 
ner given  an  outline  of  the  character  of  this  remarkable 
man.  On  an  occasion  like  this,  and  in  this  body,  criticism 
would  be  out  of  place.  One  of  his  acts  I  condemned; 
but,  I  repeat,  this  is  neither  the  occasion  nor  the  place  to 
indulge  in  criticism.  This  belongs  to  history;  and  his 
name  will  be  written  on  its  pages  and  be  transmitted  to 
posterity  as  one  of  the  remarkable  characters  of  our  epoch, 
and  as  the  most  perfect  type  of  our  republican  institutions. 
His  death  at  this  time  I  consider  a  public  misfortune,  as  he 
occupied  a  position  to  render  great  service  to  his  section 
of  our  common  county. 

Distinguished  as  he  was,  great  as  he  was,  too,  his  career 
is  ended,  and  forever;  and  we  again  are  reminded  of  the 
solemn  truth  that — 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  37 


Address  of  Mr.  Jones,  of  Florida. 

Mr.  President,  when  the  minister  of  God  on  the  last 
day  of  the  previous  session  of  this  body  invoked  the 
Divine  protection  over  each  of  its  assembled  members, 
I  well  remember,  as  I  looked  over  this  Chamber,  how  the 
thought  suggested  by  the  prayer  of  the  holy  man  came 
to  my  mind— shall  we  all  ever  meet  again  on  this  floor! 
That  mental  interrogatory  has  been  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive, for  since  our  last  meeting  in  this  Chamber  at  the  pre- 
vious session  it  has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to  remove 
from  his  earthly  sphere,  from  his  family,  his  country,  and 
his  usefulness,  our  distinguished  brother-member  Andrew 

Johnson. 

It  would  not  be  proper  for  me,  Mr.  President,  an  inex- 
perienced member  of  this  body  and  a  comparative  stranger 
to  the  deceased,  to  attempt  anything  like  an  encomium 
upon  his  character  and  services,  or  to  enlarge  upon  the 
just  tributes  of  honor  and  praise  which  have  been  be- 
stowed upon  him  by  those  Senators  around  me  who  are 
so  well  qualified  by  their  talents  and  their  knowledge  of 
his  worth  and  achievements  to  pei-form  that  sad  service. 
Nor  is  it  from  a  vain  desire  to  have  it  said  that  my  hum- 
ble voice  has  been  raised  in  these  most  melancholy  serv- 
ices to    genius  and  integrity,  that  I  presume  to  address 


ADDRESS   OF  MK.  JONES  ON  THE 


you  now.  But,  sii',  I  feel  that  to  be  silent  on  this  occasion 
would  be  to  refuse  to  the  heart  the  agency  of  the  tongue 
to  relieve  it  from  the  emotions  of  sadness  and  regret  with 
which  the  loss  of  our  honored  companion  has  filled  me. 
Not  that  that  loss  is  to  me  so  personal  as  to  create  the 
pangs  of  common  grief  or  affliction.  There  was  no  ten- 
der personal  tie  between  us  to  be  broken.  There  is  noth- 
ing in  my  feelings  of  regret  on  this  occasion  to  mark  them 
from  those  ordinary  emotions  which  the  loss  of  any  good 
man  would  produce,  except,  sir,  the  uncommon  fervency 
and  depth  which  the  public  character  of  the  misfortune  has 
occasioned.  I  feel,  sir,  that,  situated  as  the  country  is  and 
as  this  Senate  is,  the  loss  of  Mr.  Johnson  is  great,  if  not 
irreparable,  and  that  if  he  could  have  lived  through  the 
period  for  which  he  was  elected  to  this  body,  the  country 
would  have  derived  great  benefit  from  his  services. 

In  a  country  like  ours,  sir,  there  is  no  safer  or  surer 
way  to  measure  the  usefulness  or  value  of  a  public  man 
than  by  a  consideration  of  the  influence  and  power  which 
he  wields  over  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people  Under 
other  systems  this  influence  and  power  do  not  produce 
the  same  results  which  they  do  here.  The  mysterious 
councils  of  despotism  seldom  consider  the  temper  or  the 
afiections  of  the  people ;  and  where  the  latter  take  no  part 
in  the  business  of  government,  except  to  toil  to  support 
its  aggressions,  there  is  no  field  for  popular  leadership  or 
the  operation  of  that  sympathy  and  influence  which  we 
have  seen  binding   the  people  of  this  countr}^  to  their 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  39 

rulers  with  more  than  despotic  force.  It  has  fallen  to  the 
lot,  sir,  of  but  few  men  even  in  this  country  to  command 
for  any  great  length  of  time  the  pure  and  unselfish  love  of 
the  people.  Great  talents  and  attainments  have  always 
exercised,  as  they  should  do,  a  proper  influence  over  the 
minds  of  our  citizens,  and  have  ever  received  the  highest 
favors  that  the  people  could  bestow.  But,  sir,  in  all  the 
tributes  and  honors  bestowed  upon  the  many  great  intel- 
lects of  the  country,  there  was  very  little  evidence  of 
affectionate  attachment  or  heartfelt  devotion  on  the  part  of 
the  people. 

But  it  was  not  the  only  merit  of  Mr.  Johnson  that  his 
mind  was  distinguished  for  those  qualities  which  ranked 
him  with  men  of  eminence.  Gifted  as  he  was  in  this  re- 
spect, he  had  also  that  which  all  men  of  eminence  aim  to 
acquire  and  but  few  possess,  the  power  to  command  and 
the  virtue  to  merit  the  love  and  respect  of  the  people. 
When  we  contemplate  the  career  of  tliis  wonderful  man, 
commencing  at  the  lowest  and  rising  to  the  highest  stra- 
tum of  society,  by  means,  and  by  means  only,  of  his  own 
untiring  will  and  talents,  it  should  afford  us  great  satisfac- 
tion and  pride  to  have  even  this  example  (if  it  were  all, 
which  it  is  not)  of  the  good  effect  of  our  system  of  govern- 
ment in  opening  up  to  the  whole  people  all  the  honors 
and  emoluments  of  the  State. 

In  reviewing  the  tedious  and  slow  progress  of  govern- 
mental reform,  with  its  relapses  and  conflicts,  sometimes 
attended  with  tears   and  blood  and  at  others  breakinnf 


40  ADDRESS   OF   MR.   JONES   ON   THE 

down  the  bamers  of  time  and  prejudice  with  the  force  of 
truth  and  reason,  there  are  no  facts  which  appear  more 
striking-  in  the  long  march  of  improvement  than  the  te- 
nacity, the  mistrust,  and  jealousy  which  were  ever  exhibited 
by  the  enemies  of  the  people  in  their  efforts  to  withhold 
from  society  all  interest  and  influence  in  its  own  govern- 
ment. 

You  cannot  but  remember  the  terrible  conflict  so  long 
maintained  at  Rome  for  exclusive  privileges  by  the  patri- 
cians, and  the  despair  and  apprehension  with  which  they 
ultimately  yielded  to  their  fellow- citizens  a  voice  in  the 
management  of  public  affairs.  It  seems  to  have  been 
claimed  at  the  very  dawn  of  civilization  that  the  imperfect 
constitution  of  man  would  never  be  made  to  harmonize 
with  the  principles  of  regular  government,  unless  the  per- 
sons who  administered  it  could  succeed  in  deluding-  the 
people  by  a  show  of  authority  emanating  from  some  mys- 
terious or  divine  source.  And  those  grand  epochs  in  the 
history  of  human  liberty,  so  often  pointed  to  with  pride, 
only  attest  the  slavery  and  degradation  which  surrounded 
those  champions  of  freedom  who  looked  for  the  foundation 
of  their  rights  and  privileges  in  the  concessions  and  char- 
ters of  king's. 

Melancholy  and  sad  as  this  occasion  is,  it  brings  to  our 
minds  in  the  most  vivid  light  the  true  genius  of  our  own 
free  institutions.  The  grand  figure  which  surmounts  this 
Capitol  may  be  the  work  of  some  man  whose  conceptions 
of  liberty  were  inspired  by  the  surroundings  of  despotism. 


LIFE   AND    CIIARAOTER   OF   ANDREAV   JOHNSON.  41 

Nothing  attests  the  purity  and  correctness  of  imagination 
more  than  those  pictures  of  art  which  are  drawn  with 
fidehty  by  one  who  has  never  seen  the  originals.  But 
still  they  are  only  pictures.  In  the  life  and  character  and 
services  of  him  we  mourn  to-day  we  have  more  than  a 
picture.  We  see  reflected  before  us  not  the  ''watery," 
but  the  full  and  living  "  image"  of  a  free  constitution. 

It  was  quite  natural  for  Mr.  Johnson  to  feel  more  than 
an  ordinary  attachment  for  the  Union  and  Constitution 
of  these  States.  That  he  did  entertain  the  most  sincere 
devotion  for  the  principles  of  this  Government  no  one  the 
least  disposed  to  fairness  can  deny.  He  felt  too  strongly 
the  benefits  it  conferred  to  be  willing  to  risk  its  advantages 
for  anv  other  system,  and  with  an  honesty  and  sincerity 
which  commanded  even  the  respect  of  his  foes  he  clung  to 
it  throug-h  all  its  fortunes.  If  he  favored  those  measures 
of  war  which  were  adopted  by  the  North  when  war  was 
a  real  issue,  he  also  favored  the  cultivation  of  kindly 
sentiments  toward  the  South,  when  it  was  not  popular  to 
sympathize  with  that  war- wasted  section.  In  the  unhappy 
condition  of  the  southern  people,  this  man  of  bitter  preju- 
dices and  strong  hatred  found  abundant  opportunity  to 
display  the  bad  passions  which  were  said  to  have  possessed 
him.  But,  sir,  history  does  not  show.  Christian  charity 
and  meekness  the  world  over  do  not  exhibit,  an  instance 
of  greater  fidelity  to  principle,  a  more  sublime  example  of 
self-abnegation,  or  a  more  complete  disregard  of  all  selfish 
interests,  than  were  made  manifest  in  the  humane  policy 


42  ADDRESS   OF  MR.  JONES  ON   THE 

of  Andrew  Johnson  toward  the  South  at  a  time  when  he 
had  it  in  his  power  to  oppress  her  people. 

What  motives,  think  you,  prompted  him  to  rise,  as  he 
did  rise,  far  above  the  current  of  sectional  hate  and  preju- 
dice which  for  years  had  carried  upon  their  surface  the 
biightest  minds  and  purest  hearts  in  the  country  1  As  a 
Southern  man,  he  was  true  to  the  Union ;  as  a  lover  of 
the  Union,  he  was  true  to  the  Constitution.  In  maintain- 
ing his  consistency,  he  was  frequently  misrepresented  and 
oftener  misunderstood.  While  supporting  the  Govern- 
ment, he  was  accused  of  having  deserted  his  section ; 
while  supporting  the  Constitution,  he  was  charged  with 
infidelity  to  the  Union  and  partiality  toward  the  South. 
He  received  alternately  the  praises  and  condemnation  of 
both  sections,  and  his  efforts  to  serve  the  country  were 
applauded  or  denounced  as  they  met  the  views  or  crossed 
the  purposes  of  contending  parties.  But,  regardless  of 
what  was  thought  or  said  of  him,  he  followed  his  own 
stern  convictions  of  duty,  and  clung  to  his  opinions  with 
more  than  an  Eastern  devotion.  Among  the  mountains  of 
Tennessee,  imperiled  by  dangers,  he  proclaimed  his  adhe- 
sion to  the  Union.  From  his  high  position  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  he  had  the  courage  to  speak  a  kind 
word  for  the  South  and  recommend  moderation  toward 
her  people.  If  he  sought  popularity,  as  it  is  said  he  did, 
he  could  say  with  Lord  Mansfield  that  it  was  not  the  pop- 
ularity which  is  run  after,  but  that  which  follows  in  the 
train  of  duty  fearlessly  performed. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  43 

For  a  time  he  seemed  to  be  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  pop- 
ular neglect.  The  great  party  which  had  elevated  him  to 
the  first  position  in  the  Government  pursued  him  with  a 
bitterness  and  hatred  not  often  exhibited  toward  political 
foes. 

Who  would  have  supposed  that  the  State  whose  inter- 
ests and  fortunes  he  was  said  to  have  deserted  would  again 
honor  him  with  the  highest  position  in  her  gift?  This  was 
indeed  a  victory;  but  it  was  a  victory  of  fairness  and 
candor  over  prejudice ;  of  truth  over  error ;  of  intelligence 
over  ignorance;  and  of  principle  over  policy.  The  re- 
entry of  Mr.  Johnson  into  this  body  was  a  triumph  seldom 
seen  in  these  degenerate  days.  I  speak  not  now  of  Xhe 
eclat  and  popular  applause  which  accompanied  it ;  but  I 
speak  of  the  moral  grandeur  exhibited  in  the  return  to 
public  service  of  a  worthy  servant  of  the  people,  who, 
because  he  would  not  follow  his  party  when  he  thought  it 
was  in  error,  was  saved  by  the  justice  of  his  former  ene- 
mies from  the  condemnation  of  his  friends.  A  very  emi- 
nent member  of  this  body,  who  also,  to  the  great  loss  of 
the  country,  lies  cold  in  death,  once  said  on  this  floor, 
while  speaking  on  an  occasion  like  this,  that  in  a  celebrated 
town  of  Italy  there  was  a  fine  collection  of  paintings  open 
to  public  view.  Between  two  of  the  most  attractive  pic- 
tures in  the  room  was  a  large  vacant  space,  evidently  in- 
tended for  some  noble  work  of  art,  but  which  was  shrouded 
in  deep  mourning,  which  none  could  penetrate.  This 
veiled  mystery  attracted  more  attention  than  all  the  paint- 


44  ADDRESS    OF   MR.   JONES   ON   THE 

ings  in  view.  So  let  it  be  with  that  part  of  the  history  of 
the  ilhistrious  deceased  which,  for  his  own  and  the  sake  of 
his  country,  we  could  wish  should  never  be  written. 

Let  us  hope,  sir,  that  while  his  example  of  patience, 
industry,  and  success  may  continue  forever  to  illustrate  the 
greatness  of  his  own  virtues  and  encourage  the  youth  of 
our  country  to  emulate  his  fame,  his,  as  it  is  the  first,  may 
remain  the  last  case  in  our  annals  in  which  a  President  of 
this  great  Republic  ever  appeared  as  a  defendant  at  your 
bar. 

If  any  additional  sanction  were  needed  to  bind  us  to  the 
strict  performance  of  our  high  duties  here,  surely  the  un- 
ceKtainty  of  life  and  the  certainty  of  death,  as  shown  by 
the  sudden  departure  of  our  deceased  friend,  ought  to  be 
sufficient  warning  to  us  all  to  profit  well  by  the  hours  at 
our  command  ere  we  are  overtaken  by  that  night  wherein 
no  man  can  labor. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOUNSON.  45 


Address  of  Mr.  Bayard,  of  Delaware. 

Mr.  President,  with  the  exception  of  the  few  weeks  of 
the  hist  special  session  of  the  Senate,  I  had  personally 
no  public  service  in  connection  with  our  late  associate, 
Andrew  Johnson,  of  Tennessee ;  nor  had  there  been  at 
any  time  intimacy  between  us,  nor  had  our  habits  of 
life  been  sympathetic.  Yet,  feeling  that  his  career  must 
be  of  interest  to  every  American,  and  his  personal 
qualities  and  public  conduct  so  full  of  what  was  use- 
ful to  the  country  and  honorable  to  himself,  I  have 
to-day  a  sad  pleasure  in  bearing  testimony  above  his 
bier  to  his  worth,  and  in  recalling  to  his  surviving 
countrymen  some  of  the  true  lessons  of  his  life,  although, 
perhaps,  the  full  and  interesting  remarks  to  which  we  have 
listened  may  make  mine  supei-fluous.  His  career  notably 
illustrated  a  just  and  generous  feature  in  our  institutions. 
I  mean  that  very  essence  of  freedom,  ''freedom  of  opportu- 
nities,^' that  ''fair  field  and  no  favor,"  upon  which  every 
.  American  youth  starts  in  the  race  of  life  for  success  in  any 
profession,  for  wealth,  for  fame,  for  political  position  and 
power.  In  other  and  less  favored  lands,  of  "just  and  old 
renown"  there  is  what  the  poet  has  well  termed  the  "in- 
vidious bar"  of  humble  and  obscure  birth,  which  obstructs 
the  timid  and  inexperienced  youth  as  with  unpracticed 


46  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BAYARD  ON  THE 

step  he  enters  upon  the  rough  path  of  Hfe,  and  sometimes 
embarrasses  him  sadly  even  to  his  journey's  end.  Hap- 
pily in  America  this  does  not  exist.  Nay,  may  it  not  rather 
be  doubted  whether  the  repute  of  superior  fortune  and 
social  position  is  not  a  weight  in  the  race  for  popular  favor, 
subjecting  their  possessor  to  detraction  at  the  hands  of  the 
inconsiderate  many  f 

The  man  of  whom  we  now  speak  in  his  youth  was  poor, 
unlettered,  and  obscure.  He  had  native  vigor  of  mind  and 
body,  and  the  unfettered  opportunity  afforded  by  our  in- 
stitutions of  government  to  test  freely  his  capacities  in  any 
direction  he  saw  fit.  His  necessities  compelled  him  to  seek 
employment  as  a  mechanic,  and  by  the  labor  of  his  hands 
he  earned  his  bread;  but  in  all  those  years  of  toil  he 
omitted  no  opportunity  or  eff'oii;  to  supply  the  deficiencies 
in  his  early  education  and  mental  culture.  He  presented 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  public  station,  and  by  the  suf- 
frages of  his  fellow-citizens  he  rose  step  by  step  until  he 
became  a  member  of  the  co-ordinate  House  of  Congress, 
then  of  this  body,  and  afterward  its  presiding  officer ;  then, 
by  an  event  whose  dreadful  tragedy  shocked  the  whole 
country,  he  became  President  of  the  United  States. 

We  live  too  near  the  times  in  which  his  official  action 
became  so  important  in  its  influences  upon  the  country  to 
attempt  its  history.  He  came  to  power  and  place  in  a 
stormy  period,  the  excitements  of  which  have  not  yet  en- 
tirely subsided,  and  the  serenity  and  judicial  calmness 
that  should  mark  the  page  of  history  will  be  those  of  a 


LIFE  AND  CHAHAOTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  47 

future  generation,  whose  pulses  never  thrilled  on  one  side 
or  the  other  with  the  passions  of  the  times  in  which  he 
lived  and  died. 

But  part  of  his  life  and  example  may  now  be  properly- 
examined,  and  examined  only  to  be  approved.  Friend 
and  foe  alike  must  admit  his  steady,  unshaken  love  of 
country ;  his  constant  industry  ;  his  simple  integrity  and 
honesty ;  his  courage  of  conviction,  that  never  faltered. 
All  these  are  worthy  examples  for  the  emulation  of  Amer- 
ican youth  and  the  youth  of  all  lands.  These  home-bred 
virtues  induced  a  life  of  simplicity  and  thoughtful  econ- 
omy ;  kept  his  hand  clean  from  even  a  suspicion  of  im- 
proper gain,  and  in  a  long  public  career  preserved  him 
from  the  many  temptations  that  so  often  warp  men  of 
strong  passions  and  vigorous  character  like  his  from  the 
path  of  duty.  He  possessed  and  cherished  the  fine  old- 
fashioned  sense  of  propriety  that  prevented  his  accept- 
ance of  gifts  from  any  source  or  of  any  nature  during  his 
tenure  of  high  official  power  and  pati-onage,  even  though 
proffered  in  the  guise  of  warm  personal  and  patriotic 
friendship.  His  performance  of  public  and  official  duties 
was  marked  by  industry  and  constant  care. 

Qualities  and  habits  such  as  these  surely  are  entitled 
to  thankful  recognition,  and  being  admirable  and  whole- 
some, are  always  examples  needed  by  a  people ;  by  none 
more  than  those  living  under  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment ;  never  more  than  in  the  times  in  which  we  live. 

Andrew  Johnson's  rise  and  success  in  life  will  ever  be 


48  ADDRESS  OF  MB.  BAYARD  ON  THE 

an  encouragement  and  incentive  to  the  poor  and  friend- 
less among  his  countrymen  to  cultivate  their  intellectual 
faculties ;  to  neglect  no  opportunity  for  the  best  and  most 
important  education — self-education ;  to  be  industrious  and 
frugal,  that  they  may  be,  and  continue  to  be,  honest  men ; 
to  avoid  those  extravagant  modes  of  living  which  create 
temptations  so  difficult  to  resist ;  to  be  steadfast  in  adver- 
sity, and  ever  faithful  to  the.  Government  which  protects 
them. 

Such  habits  and  quahties  will  almost  certainly  bring 
success ;  but  if  not  success,  then  something  far  better  and 
higher  than  success — self-respect  and  the  respect  and 
esteem  of  their  fellow-men,  the  consciousness  of  duty  ful- 
filled to  themselves  and  their  country,  whose  best  hopes 
largely  depend  upon  the  fomiation  of  such  habits  and  in 
the  exercise  of  such  virtues  by  its  public  men. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSOiN.  1!) 


Address  of  Mr.  Key,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  President,  Andrew  Johnson  was  a  very  remark- 
able man.  The  qualities  of  his  mind  and  disposition  were 
so  unique  and  peculiar  as  to  lead  those  acquainted  with 
him  to  entertain  different  opinions  as  to  their  composition 
and  tendencies. 

As  is  well  known,  Mr.  Johnson's  birth  was  in  the  midst 
of  poverty  and  obscurity.  His  father  died  when  Andrew 
was  but  four  years  old.  The  son  never  passed  a  day  in 
school.  At  the  age  of  ten  years  he  was  apprenticed  to  a 
tailor.  This  species  of  servitude  galled  the  spirit  of  the 
proud  boy,  and  he  escaped  from  it  by  flight.  Unable 
subsequently  to  come  to  terms  with  his  master,  he  left 
North  Carolina,  the  State  of  his  nativity,  and,  crossing 
its  mountains,  came  to  East  Tennessee,  then  a  sort  of 
terra  incognita.  In  September,  1826,  in  his  eighteenth 
year,  Mr.  Johnson  arrived  at  Greene ville,  Tenn.,  accom- 
panied by  his  mother.  An  old  wooden  cart,  drawn  by  a 
worthless  horse,  carried  all  their  worldly  goods.  He  could 
scarcely  read,  and  could  not  write.  Unpromising  as  the 
prospect  appeared,  this  youth  was  destined  to  address  list- 
ening Senates,  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of  the  grandest 
and  greatest  republic  the  world  has  ever  seen,  at  a  most 
critical  period  of  its  history,  and  to  send  his  name  and 
fame  to  the  farthest  limits  of  civilization. 


50  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   KEY  ON   THE 

Born  and  reared  under  the  most  adverse  circumstances, 
it  was  not  possible  that  the  features  and  general  contom* 
of  liis  mind  should  be  shaped  in  complete  harmony  or 
perfect  regularity.  Something  of  ruggedness  and  angu- 
larity of  mental,  moral,  and  social  characteristics  must 
result  from  such  surroundings  as  encompassed  his  early 
life.  His  poverty  and  want  of  education  fettered  a  bold 
and  ambitious  spirit,  capable  of  the  highest  aspirations. 
The  very  unequal  distribution  of  advantages  doubtless 
appeared  to  him  in  the  aspect  of  a  wrong.  A  restless  and 
longing  mind,  shackled  and  imprisoned,  is  not  apt  to  be 
always  reasonable  and  just  when  it  discovers,  in  the  path- 
way through  which  its  aspirations  lead,  obstacles  which 
seem  to  be  insurmountable,  and  beholds  beyond  them 
those  who  have  been  favored  by  fortune. 

Mr.  Johnson's  associations  from  his  birth  to  his  man- 
hood were  with  the  poor  and  unlearned.  Rising  thence 
by  his  unaided  exertions,  he  was  under  no  obligation  to 
those  who  had  moved  in  a  sphere  superior  to  his  own, 
and  felt  none.  His  sympathies  were  and  they  remained 
with  the  class  of  society  in  which  he  had  been  trained. 
He  had  not  in  youth  fallen  under  the  refining  influences 
which  do  so  much  to  soften,  enlarge,  and  diversify  man's 
habitudes  and  tendencies.  His  prejudices  in  favor  of  the 
feebler  ranks  of  population  became  a  mental  habit  before 
he  was  able  to  raise  himself  into  more  liberal  and  enlight- 
ened companionship.  Of  this  kinship  with  the  humble  he 
was  never  ashamed,  but  it  produced,  in  him  a  distrust  of 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  51 

the  leaders  of  society  and  parties,  and  led  him  to  the  utter- 
ance of  sentiments  on  some  occasions  which  were  charged 
to  be  agrarian  in  tendency,  and  caused  many  to  allege 
that  he  was  a  demagogue.  Mr.  Johnson  was  neither  an 
agrarian  nor  a  demagogue.  He  never  put  his  trust  in 
princes  or  courted  the  favor  of  party  leaders,  nor  was  he 
loved  by  them.  His  whole  life  was  a  scene  of  conflict, 
and  his  triumphs  were  in  spite  of  leaders.  His  faith  was 
in  the  people.  Them  he  loved  and  trusted.  He  reposed 
upon  their  honor,  honesty,  patriotism,  and  virtue.  His 
tribunal  of  last  resort  was  the  people,  and  to  them  he  ap- 
pealed. When  parties  and  platforms  displeased  him  he 
turned  his  back  upon  them  and  rallied  his  countrymen 
around  him.  They  loved  him,  and  whether  he  followed 
party  or  not  they  followed  him  in  multitudes. 

On  the  day  of  his  funeral,  if  one  had  stood  by  the  grave 
of  our  late  President,  and  had  seen  the  procession  which 
came  to  it  with  the  body  of  the  dead  statesman,  among 
the  thousands  there  he  would  have  discovered  not  many 
of  earth's  great  ones ;  not  many  in  office ;  no  display  of 
"pomp  and  circumstance."  A  plain  hearse  carried  the 
remains  of  the  great  dead.  Two  or  three  carriages  held 
the  members  of  his  family.  In  that  vast  procession  there 
was  no  other  vehicle.  But  the  people  whom  Mr.  John- 
son had  loved  were  there.  They  had  gathered  from  the 
fields  and  workshops,  from  the  mountains  and  the  valleys, 
their  faces  browned  by  the  sun  and  their  hands  hardened 
by  toil.     They  had  all  come ;  the  old,  those  of  middle  age. 


52  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   KEY   ON   THE 

the  youthful,  and  the  children.  There  was  none  of  the 
pageantry  and  display  which  usually  follow  earth's  great 
ones  to  sepulture,  but  in  their  stead  were  sad  faces  and 
tears,  such  as  go  only  with  loved  ones  to  the  tomb.  In 
the  solemnity  of  that  hour  the  mountains,  which  had  stood 
the  sentinels  of  Mr.  Johnson's  home  and  now  look  down 
upon  his  sepulcher,  seemed  to  join  in  the  general  sorrow. 

In  the  beginning  of  our  recent  civil  struggle  Mr.  John- 
son's influence,  courage,  and  activity  contributed  most 
powerfully  to  carry  with  him  a  majority  of  the  people  of 
his  section  of  the  State  in  favor  of  the  Federal  Union. 
The  authorities  of  his  State,  with  armies  to  enforce  obe- 
dience, were  against  him,  and  he  had  no  support  at  hand 
but  his  unarmed  and  undisciplined  multitude;  still,  unin- 
timidated  by  threats  and  unawed  by  danger,  he  held  aloft 
the  banner  of  the  Union  and  appealed  to  the  people  to 
uphold  it.  We  know  something  of  the  fearful  animosities 
engendered  in  a  community  divided  in  civil  war;  how  the 
passions  are  turned  loose  to  deeds  of  horror  at  which  the 
blood  freezes.  Power  is  used  with  a  remorseless  hand, 
and  he  who  stands  in  its  way  is  in  constant  peril. 

It  was  from  such  a  condition  of  affairs  as  this,  with  its 
hate,  revenge,  and  scenes  of  blood  fresh  in  his  mind,  that 
Mr.  Johnson  entered  the  presidential  chair.  I  remember 
well  the  alarm  of  the  people  of  the  South  when  the  sad 
news  was  borne  to  them  of  President  Lincoln's  assassina- 
tion. Mr.  Johnson's  denunciations  of  those  who  had  op- 
posed the  Federal  Government,  and  the  punishment  and 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OP  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  53 

penalties  he  had  invoked  and  threatened,  justified  the 
gravest  apprehensions.  But  when  he  came  to  be  Presi- 
dent; when  his  enemies  had  laid  down  their  arms  and  furled 
their  flag-,  and  after  the  power  to  pardon  as  well  as  to  punish 
had  passed  into  his  hands,  satisfied,  as  he  must  have  been, 
that  the  great  mass  of  the  Southern  people  had  been  honest, 
though  mistaken,  as  he  believed,  in  the  motives  which  had 
impelled  their  action,  all  his  bitterness  and  acrimony  toward 
them  were  dissipated.  The  man  sank  himself  out  of  sight, 
and  the  President  of  a  powerful  nation  shielded  his  late 
foes  by  his  clemency,  though  the  liberal  policy  he  exer- 
cised toward  them  contributed  powerfully  to  lose  him  the 
support  of  the  party  which  had  placed  him  in  office.  He 
who  could  exercise  such  magnanimity  under  such  circum- 
stances had  a  great  heart  and  unflinching  fortitude.  Those 
who  think  Mr.  Johnson  was  cold  and  very  selfish  never 
understood  his  inner  nature. 

In  many  respects  he  was  strange  and  peculiar,  so  that 
it  is  no  matter  of  surprise  that  many  who  did  not  fully 
comprehend  him  had  an  unfavorable  estimate  of  some  of 
the  qualities  of  his  mind  and  heart.  He  was  combative, 
and  always  armed  and  equipped  for  the  fray.  He  did 
not  wait  to  be  assailed,  but  was  usually  the  first  to  enter 
the  lists,  and  no  matter  how  great  the  odds  against  him, 
or  how  formidable  the  antagonist,  he  was  eager  for  the 
contest.  He  was  also  aggressive.  He  chose  to  carry  the 
war  into  the  enemy's  territory,  and  it  was  hard  to  drive 
him  to  a  defensive  attitude ;   nor  would  he  leave  the  field 


54  ADDRESS   OF   MR.    KKY    ON    THE 

until  he  had  won  a  complete  victory  or  had  suffered  a 
decisive  defeat.  His  life  was  a  contest,  and  his  love  of 
fight  sometimes  precipitated  him  into  controversies  which 
had  been  better  avoided.  He  was  fearless,  self-reliant, 
and  bold,  and  never  bent  "the  pregnant  hinges  of  the 
knee  where  thrift  may  follow  fawning." 

Mr.  Johnson  was  an  honest  man.  He  was  never  ac- 
cused of  duplicity  or  unfair  dealing.  His  errors  resulted 
from  his  convictions  of  right.  Though  for  forty  years  he 
Avas  in  the  public  service,  and  often  in  situations  in  which 
gratuities  and  bribes  might  have  been  accepted  or  public 
funds  appropriated  with  little  fear  of  detection,  yet  no 
stain  of  official  corruption  had  soiled  his  hands  or  life. 
Frugality  was  a  habit  with  him,  and  yet  out  of  his  sala- 
ries in  public  life  he  saved  only  a  fau^  competence. 

There  were  two  central  ideas  around  which  all  his  po- 
litical views  revolved,  and  to  which  his  actions  were  sub- 
ordinated. He  regarded  the  Constitution,  State  and  Fed- 
eral, with  a  veneration  and  devotion  of  kin  to  fanaticism. 
He  appealed  to  the  Constitution  on  all  occasions  and 
under  all  circumstances,  was  constantly  in  apprehension 
of  its  violation,  and  everywhere  held  it  up  before  the  as- 
semblies and  tribunals  of  the  nation,  and  demanded  that 
every  jot  and  tittle  of  it  be  observed.  With  him  it  was 
the  ark  of  our  safety,  as  sacred  and  privileged  as  was  that 
ark  of  Israel  which  could  not  be  touched  by  profane  hands. 
No  measure,  howsoever  great  in  its  expediency  or  utility, 
could  receive  his  support  or  sanction  unless  it  had  certain 


LIFE  AND   DHARAOTETl   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON,  55 

warrant  in  the  Constitution.  His  other  grand  idea  was 
confidence  in  the  people  and  a  strict  regard  for  the  pro- 
tection and  security  of  their  interests  and  the  preservation 
of  their  liberties.  Amplify  his  theory  as  he  might,  these 
ideas  composed  its  substance.  He  feared  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Government  upon  the  rights  of  the  people. 
The  times  of  the  Caesars,  when  the  republic  of  Rome  was 
transformed  into  an  empire,  and  of  the  Charleses  of  Eng- 
land, when  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown  were  extended 
and  enlarged  at  the  expense  of  the  liberties  of  the  people, 
were  with  him  favorite  fields  of  history,  which  he  care- 
fully explored  and  often  referred  to  as  exhibiting  the  dan- 
gers which  threaten  a  civilized  free  government. 

Mr.  Johnson's  skill  was  not  so  much  in  construction  as 
in  resistance  to  the  schemes  and  measures  of  others.  His 
great  desire  and  aim  were  to  maintain  and  preserve  what 
our  fathers  had  handed  down  to  us.  He  was  afraid  that 
change  might  mar  their  work. 

Mr.  Johnson  will  be  a  marvel  in  history.  His  ascent 
from  the  lowest  station  in  society,  without  adventitious  aids 
or  fortunate  accidents,  and  with  surroundings  the  most 
unpromising,  to  the  grand  elevation  he  attained,  cannot 
be  understood  and  appreciated  in  any  land  but  ours,  and 
it  is  an  astonishing  consummation  in  it,  furnishing  splendid 
evidence  of  the  value,  power,  and  glory  of  our  institutions. 
He  will  be  held  up  to  the  ages  to  come  as  an  illustrious 
example  of  what  the  poorest  and  obscurest  boy  may  ac- 
complish if  he  but  have  perseverance,  pluck,  and  capacity. 


0<)  LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   ANDKEW   JOHNSON. 

Anotlier  shining  example  of  this  class  is  found  in  him  who 
so  lately,  Mr.  President,  filled  with  so  much  distinction  the 
chair  in  which  you  sit  to-day. 

Mr.  Johnson  has  gone  from  this  presence  and  this 
Chamber,  and  will  return  no  more.  The  "insatiate  archer" 
has  no  respect  for  persons,  station,  or  rank.  The  king  and 
the  peasant,  the  president  and  the  beggar  alike  become 
his  victims;  but,  among  all  the  country's  dead,  this  Gov- 
ernment has  never  lost,  and  never  will  lose,  a  more  loyal 
and  fearless  defender  or  its  people  a  more  devoted  friend 
than  Andrew  Johnson. 

The  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously,  and  the 
Senate  (at  2  o'clock  and  38  minutes  p.  m.)  adjourned. 


PROCEEDINGS 


HOUSE  OF    REPRESENTATIVES. 


ANNOUNCEMENT. 


A  message  was  received  from  the  Senate,  by  Mr.  Mc- 
Donald, its  Chief  Clerk,  which  informed  the  House  of  the 
proceedings  in  that  body  upon  the  announcement  of  the 
death  of  Hon.  Andrew  Johnson,  late  a  Senator  from  the 
State  of  Tennessee. 

The  Speaker.    The  Clerk  will  read  the  resolutions  just 
received  from  the  Senate. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  Senate  has  received  with  profound  sorrow 
the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  Andrew  Johnson,  late  a  Senator  of  the 
United  States  from  the  State  of  Tennessee. 

Resolved,  unanimously,  That  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr.  John- 
son, the  members  of  the  Senate  will  go  into  mourning  by  wearing  crape  upon  the 
left  arm  for  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  unanimously.  That  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory 
of  Mr.  Johnson,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  communicate  these  resolutions  to  the  House  of 
Representatives. 


ADDRESSES. 


Address  of  Mr.  McFarland,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr,  Speaker,  the  duty  devolves  on  me,  as  the  Repre- 
sentative of  the  first  congressional  district  of  Tennessee, 
to  announce  to  the  House  the  death  of  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  Tennessee,  whose  home,  from  his  first  appear- 
ance in  that  State  in  1826  to  the  day  of  his  death,  was  in 
the  congressional  district  I  have  the  honor  to  represent 
in  this  House.  I  allude  to  the  death  of  Hon.  Andrew 
Johnson,  late  a  Senator  from  Tennessee,  Ex-President  of 
the  United  States,  and  for  ten  years  a  member  of  this 
House,  which  occurred  at  the  residence  of  his  daughter, 
Mrs.  Brown,  in  Carter  County,  Tennessee,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  31st  of  July  last. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  called  to  his  final  account  and 
closed  his  connection  with  time  and  earthly  things  with- 
out that  protracted  sickness  and  suffering  which  gives 
premonition  of  approaching  dissolution.  He  was  stricken 
with  paralysis  a  day  or  two  previous  to  his  death,  and 
almost  as  soon  as  his  sickness  was  known  the  melancholy 
tidings  were  flashed  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  our 
country  that  Andrew  Johnson  was  dead.  Not  to  our 
country  only,  but  'to  the  whole  civilized  world  abroad, 


62  ADD  HESS   OF   MR.   M'FAKLAND    ON   THE 

was  the  sad  intelligence  carried  with  lightning-  speed  that 
the  ''Great  Commoner"  was  no  more. 

His  remains  were  interred  on  a  lofty  eminence  west  of 
the  town  of  Greeneville,  a  spot  selected  by  himself,  com- 
manding an  extended  view  of  the  surrounding  country, 
and  there,  amid  those  mountain  heights,  all  that  is  mortal 
of  Andrew  Johnson  is  crumbling  into  dust.  The  voice 
that  has  been  so  often  heard  in  this  Chamber  is  silenced 
forever.  The  form  that  was  so  familiar  in  these  halls  has 
disappeared,  and  will  be  seen  no  more.  Shrouded  in  ^he 
flag  of  his  country,  beneath  the  shadow  of  which  he 
fought  the  great  political  battles  of  his  life,  and  whose 
triumphant  folds  were  ever  to  him  an  object  of  adoration 
which  he  worshiped  with  an  unswerving  devotion,  far 
from  the  din  and  strife  and  turmoil  of  the  outer  world,  he 
quietly  sleeps  that  last,  long,  peaceful  sleep  which  knows 
no  waking. 

Andrew  Johnson's  career  as  a  public  man  is  the  most 
remarkable  and  wonderful  in  all  our  history,  and  is  per- 
haps unprecedented  in  modern  times.  It  cannot  be  ex- 
pected in  the  few  brief  remarks  we  are  to  submit  to  the 
House  now  that  justice  can  be  done  to  Mr.  Johnson's 
public  life,  or  that  we  can  take  more  than  a  glance  at  a 
few  of  the  prominent  facts  in  his  history. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  born  in  Raleigh,  N.  C,  on  the  29th 
day  of  December,  1808.  His  father  died  when  he  was 
a  child,  leaving  the  future  statesman  to  the  care  of  a 
widowed    mother    in   poverty    and   obscurity.     At   ten 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  03 

years  of  age  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  tailor  in  his  native 
town.  He  was  then  unable  to  read,  and  his  first  efforts 
to  learn  were  made  during  this  apprenticeship.  A  gentle- 
man read  to  him  some  sketches  from  an  old  book  known 
as  "The  American  Speaker,"  These  extracts  aroused  the 
attention  of  the  poor  apprentice  and  first  fired  his  ambi- 
tion. He  determined  and  did  learn  to  read  them  for  him- 
self. That  book  was  presented  to  him,  and  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  library  of  Mr.  Johnson. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  1826,  on  the  evening  of  a  dark, 
gloomy  day,  a  two-wheeled  cart,  drawn  by  a  blind  pony, 
was  driven  into  the  village  of  Greeneville,  East  Tennessee, 
from  the  direction  of  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina. 
With  it  were  two  men  and  a  woman.  The  younger  of 
the  two,  who  drove  the  pony,  stopped  at  the  house  of  a 
citizen  whose  sons  are  now  living  in  that  town,  and  asked 
for  forage  to  feed  his  horse,  which  he  procured,  and  then 
inquired  for  suitable  camping -ground  for  the  night,  to 
which  he  drove  and  encamped,  near  where  now  stands 
the  mansion  of  the  Johnson  family.  In  a  little  less  than 
forty  years  from  that  night  that  homeless  wanderer,  then 
about  eighteen  years  of  age,  shi'ouded  in  obscurity  and 
poverty,  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  without  the  rudi- 
ments of  a  common  education,  camping  out  under  the 
broad  canopy  of  the  heavens  in  the  village  of  Greeneville, 
became  the  occupant  of  the  building  at  the  far  end  of  this 
avenue,  and  the  chief  executive  officer  of  a  great  confed- 
eracy of  States  numbering  forty  million  people!     That 


64  ADDRESS  OF  ME.  M'FARLAND   ON  THE 

youth  was  Andrew  Johnson.  Such  was  his  first  appear- 
ance in  Tennessee,  and  thus  the  first  night  Andrew  John- 
son passed  in  Greeneville,  which  became  liis  future  home. 

Mr.  Johnson  estabhshed  himself  in  business  as  a  tailor. 
By  his  industry,  energy,  unswerving  integrity,  and 
promptness  he  was  successful.  As  a  mechanic,  that  fidel- 
ity to  duty  and  unquestioned  honesty  which  character- 
ized him  in  every  period  of  his  history  won  for  him  the 
confidence  and  respect  of  the  people,  and  made  him,  even 
then,  a  power  in  the  community.  He  was  married  shortly 
after  he  settled  in  Greeneville,  where  his  widow  survives 
him.  She  taught  him  to  write;  she  aided  him  by  her 
intelligence  and  instruction  in  his  efforts  to  acquire  the 
rudiments  of  an  education,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation 
of  his  future  greatness.  Conscious  of  his  powers  and  with 
unfaltering  confidence  in  himself,  identified  in  interest 
and  sympathy  with  the  laboring  masses,  he  applied  him- 
self with  untiring  industry,  under  disadvantages  of  a  most 
extraordinary  character,  to  the  acquisition  of  an  education 
and  to  preparation  for  his  future  wonderful  career. 

In  1828  he  was  elected  an  alderman  of  the  village ;  was 
re-elected  in  1829  and  1830;  and  was  elected  to  the  office 
of  mayor  in  1830.  He  was  appointed  a  trustee  of  Rhea 
Academy  about  1831;  was  a  member  of  the  lower  house 
of  the  Tennessee  Legislature  in  1835.  Being  defeated  in 
1837,  he  was  re-elected  in  1839.  He  was  elected  State 
senator  in  1841,  and  a  member  of  this  House  in  1843,  to 
which  position  he  was  re-elected  for  the  four  succeeding 


LIFE  AND   CHAEACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  Go 

terms.  He  was  elected  governor  of  Tennessee  in  1853, 
re-elected  in  1855,  and  in  1857  was  chosen  as  a  Senator 
in  Congress  from  the  State  of  Tennessee  for  the  terai  end- 
ing March  3,  1863;  was  appointed  military  governor  of 
Tennessee  during  the  late  civil  war  in  18G2;  was  a  candi- 
date for  Vice-President  on  the  ticket  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
18G4,  to  which  office  he  was  elected,  and  by  an  event 
never  to  be  forgiotten  in  the  history  of  the  country,  Mr. 
Johnson,  on  the  15th  of  April,  18G5,  became  President  of 
the  United  States. 

Of  the  events  of  Mr.  Johnson's  administration  I  shall 
not  speak.  The  history  of  his  administration  is  now  part 
of  the  history  of  the  country.  Posterity  will  do  him  jus- 
tice. The  great  statesmen  of  the  past  have  been  called 
to  the  administration  of  public  affairs  in  times  of  peace, 
when  the  sh'  i  of  state  was  sailing  over  a  calm,  unruffled 
sea.  Mr.  Johnson  took  the  helm  in  the  midst  of  a  storm 
lashed  into  fury  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  our 
country  by  the  angry  passions,  the  bitterness,  and  strife 
of  a  long  and  bloody  civil  conflict.  To  say  that  he  com- 
mitted no  errors  would  be  to  say  that  he  was  more  than 
human.  Now  that  he  has  passed  away  none  can  gainsay 
the  honesty  and  integrity  of  Andrew  Johnson,  or  doubt 
his  unfaltering  fidelity  to  the  great  principle  of  constitu- 
tional liberty. 

After  the  close  of  his  term  as  President,  in  18G9,  Mr. 
Johnson  retm-ned  to  his  home  in  Tennessee.  He  became 
a  candidate  for  Senator,  but  was  defeated.     In  1872,  at 


9 


06  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  M'FARLAND   ON   THE 

the  demand  of  a  large  number  of  his  people,  he  became 
a  candidate  for  Congress  from  the  State  at  large,  but  was 
for  the  third  time  in  the  whole  course  of  his  public  life 
again  defeated.  In  January,  1875,  at  the  demand  of  the 
people,  he  was  elected  by  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  a 
Senator  in  Congress  for  six  years.  His  last  and  only 
appearance  in  that  body  after  his  election  was  at  the  extra 
session  in  March,  1875,  and  with  the  cloee  of  that  session 
terminated  Andrew  Johnson's  public  services. 

Such  is  a  brief  statement  of  the  public  positions  held 
by  Mr.  Johnson.  He  was  continuously  in  the  public  serv- 
ice for  almost  forty  years. 

It  may  be  well  said  that  his  career  was  the  most  won- 
ful  in  our  history.  Who,  indeed,  was .  ever  like  him  *? 
Who  ever,  as  he  did,  proved  his  honesty,  his  aims,  and 
his  ambitions  by  conquering  for  them  their  indisputable 
vindication?  Taking  the  history  of  the  three-score  and 
seven  years  of  Andrew  Johnson,  the  poverty  of  his  child- 
hood, the  neglect  of  his  youth,  his  humble  origin,  his 
growth  to  manhood  without  even  the  rudiments  of  edu- 
cation, his  humble  mechanical  pursuit,  and  then  looking 
to  his  subsequent  remarkable  career,  and  we  have  the 
outlines  of  a  great  man  struggling  against  misfortune, 
battling  against  fate,  with  bitter  opposition  at  every  step 
of  his  progress,  finally  conquering  every  adverse  element, 
and  at  last  elevating  himself  to  the  highest  position  in  the 
Republic. 

The  poor,  uneducated  youth  became  a  Senator  in  Con- 


LTFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  07 

gress,  the  governor  of  a  great  State,  and  the  chief  exec- 
utive of  a  proud  nation;  and,  dying,  has  embahned  his 
memory  in  the  grateful  hearts  of  milHons  of  his  country- 
men ;  and,  tliough  his  form  has  disappeared,  Andrew 
Johnson  lives  and  will  ever  live  in  the  affections  of  the 
people  while  the  principles  of  constitutional  liberty  are 
feberished,  and  honesty,  integrity,  and  patriotism,  and 
abilities  of  the  highest  order,  are  venerated  by  men.  Of 
him  it  may  be  said — 

These  shall  resist  the  empire  of  decay 
When  time  is  o'er  and  worlds  have  passed  away  : 
Cold  in  the  dust  the  perished  heart  may  lie, 
But  that  which  warmed  it  once  can  never  die. 

Andrew  Johnson  was  but  a  man  ;  he  had  his  faults ; 
he  committed  errors ;  but,  looking  to  the  unfavorable 
circumstances  by  which  his  youth  was  surrounded,  the 
bitter  and  continuous  political  battles  in  which  he  was 
engaged  from  early  life  down  to  his  death,  the  wonder  is 
that  he  committed  so  few. 

He  had  his  enemies,  and  his  life  and  history  furnish 
most  striking  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  poet's  sentiment : 

He  who  ascends  to  mountain-tops  shall  find 

The  loftiest  peaks  most  wrapt  in  clouds  and  snow  : 
He  who  8urt>as8es  or  subdues  mankind 

Must  look  down  on  the  hate  of  those  below. 
Thoufjh  high  above  the  sun  of  glory  glow, 

And  far  beneath  the  earth  and  ocean  spread, 
Round  liim  are  icy  rocks,  and  loudly  blow 

Contending  tempests  on  his  naked  head, 
And  thus  reward  the  toils  which  to  those  summits  led. 

But  Mr.  Johnson  had  his  friends  and  admirers,  who 
adhered  to  him  through  every  vicissitude  of  his  political 


G8  ADDRESS   OP  MR.  M'FARLAND  ON   THE 

fortunes,  and  with  the  laboring  masses  of  the  people  of 
the  country  perhaps  no  public  man  of  his  day  had  more 
influence  and  power  than  did  he.  He  was  one  of  them  ; 
knew  their  wants,  and  sympathized  with  their  struggles. 

The  life  of  Andrew  Johnson  is  an  example  of  the  last- 
ing fame  that  surely  awaits  the  honest  statesman.  His 
unswerving  integrity ;  his  bold,  independent,  and  candid 
declaration  of  his  opinion  on  public  questions ;  his  confi- 
dence in  the  people,  and  the  absence  of  disguise  in  all  his 
acts,  were  his  master-key  to  the  popular  heart.  The 
country  was  never  in  doubt  as  to  his  opinions  and  pur- 
poses, and  victorious  or  defeated,  he  remained  firm  in  his 
belief.  In  all  the  contests  of  his  time  his  position  on 
great  public  questions  was  as  clear  as  the  sun  in  a  cloud- 
less sky. 

Sirs,  standing  by  the  grave  of  Andrew  Johnson,  and 
looking  back  over  the  history  of  his  life  and  considering 
these  things,  how  insignificant  and  contemptible  appear 
the  labor  and  ambition  of  the  mere  politician !  What  a 
reproach  is  his  life  on  that  false  policy  which  would  trifle 
with  a  great  people !  If  I  were  to  write  the  epitaph  of 
Andrew  Johnson  I  would  inscribe  on  the  stone  which 
shall  mark  his  resting-place,  as  the  highest  eulogy,  ''Here 
lies  the  man  who  was  in  the  public  service  for  forty 
years,  who  never  tried  to  deceive  his  countrymen,  and 
died,  as  he  lived,  '  an  honest  man,  the  noblest  work  of 
God.' "  While  the  youth  of  America  should  imitate  his 
noble  qualities,  they  may  take  courage  from  his  example, 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  G9 

and  note  the  high  proof  it  caffords  that  under  our  equal 
institutions  the  avenues  to  the  highest  position  are  open 
aUke  to  all. 

Mr.  Johnson  rose  by  the  force  of  his  own  genius,  indom- 
itable will,  and  untiring  energy,  unaided  by  power,  pres- 
tige, or  wealth.  At  an  age  when  our  young  men  are 
usually  in  pursuit  of  education  at  institutions  of  learning, 
he,  in  ignorance  and  poverty,  made  his  way  from  the 
"  Old  North  State  "  toward  the  West,  and,  amid  the  rude 
collisions  incident  to  East  Tennessee  at  that  day,  com- 
menced his  early  struggle,  and  in  less  than  fifty  years 
matured  a  character  the  highest  exhibitions  of  which  were 
destined  to  mark  eras  in  his  country's  history.  Beginning 
in  the  mountains  of  East  Tennessee  in  1826,  brought  into 
antagonism  with  the  power,  influence,  and  wealth  of  old 
citizens  of  the  country,  supported  by  the  consciousness  of 
his  own  powers  and  by  the  confidence  of  the  people,  he 
surmounted  all  the  barriers  of  adverse  fortune  and  won  a 
glorious  name  in  the  annals  of  his  country. 

Let  the  generous  youth  fired  with  an  honorable  ambi- 
tion remember  that  our  American  system  of  government 
offers  on  every  hand  and  opens  wide  the  doors  to  the  most 
exalted  position  and  the  grandest  reward  to  merit.  If, 
like  Andrew  Johnson,  orphanage,  obscurity,  and  poverty 
shall  oppress  him ;  yet,  if,  like  him,  he  feels  the  Prome- 
thean spark  within,  let  him  remember  that  his  country, 
like  a  generous  mother,  opens  wide  her  arms  to  welcome 
every  one  of  her  children  whose  genius  may  promote  her 


70  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  M'FARLAND  ON   THE 

prosperity  or  add  to  her  renown.     Mr.  Speaker,  I  offer 
the  following"  resolutions : 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  has  received 
-with  the  deepest  sensibility  and  profound  sorrow  the  intelligence  of  the  death 
of  Hon.  Andrew  Johnson,  late  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Tennessee,  Ex- Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  and  long  a  member  of  this  House. 

Resolved,  That  the  proceedings  of  this  House  in  relation  to  the  death  of  Hon. 
Andrew  Johnson  be  communicated  to  the  widow  and  family  of  the  deceased  by 
the  Clerk  of  this  House. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  further  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  deceased 
this  House  do  now  adjourn. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  71 


Address  of  Mr.  Waddell,  of  North  Carolina. 

Mr.  Speaker  :  I  have  been  struck  since  these  proceed- 
ings commenced  with  the  pecuhar  circumstances  of  this 
occasion.  There  is  to  a  man  who  beHeves  in  special 
providences  food  for  reflection  in  the  fact  that  just  as 
we  have  reached  the  cHmacteric  of  a  debate  upon  the 
question  whether  the  American  people  shall  live  together 
as  brothers,  whether  there  shall  be  a  government  of  love 
or  hate,  we  are  suddenly  arrested  by  the  remembrance 
that  there  is  a  time  appointed  for  all  men  once  to  die. 
Mr.  Speaker,  when  that  supreme  hour  comes  for  you  and 
me  and  for  each  of  us,  I  know  nothing  will  give  us  more 
consolation  than  the  memory  of  deeds  of  charity  and 
good-will. 

The  very  remarkable  man  whose  death  has  just  been 
formally  announced  to  this  House  was,  like  many  other 
men  who  obtained  eminence  in  other  States,  a  native  and, 
until  his  early  manhood,  a  resident  of  North  Carolina.  It 
is  therefore  meet,  sir,  that  in  this  hour  dedicated  to  his 
memory  the  voice  of  that  State  should  be  heard,  and  the 
duty  of  uttering  it  has  been  assigned  to  me. 

My  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Johnson  was  very 
limited  and  merely  formal.  I  will  not  therefore  under- 
take to  portray  his  character  as  a  private  citizen,  nor  shall 
I  attempt  any  sketch  of  his  public  life  and  his  varied 


72  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  WADDELL  ON  THE 

and  distinguished  public  services,  because  that  has  been 
ah-eady  done  by  my  friend  who  has  just  taken  his  seat, 
and  is  familiar  to  all  more  or  less. 

But  he  exhibited  throughout  his  public  career  some 
qualities  upon  which  brief  comment  may  justly  be  made, 
and  perhaps  not  unprofitably  at  this  time.  His  education, 
socially  and  politically,  differed  in  almost  every  respect 
from  my  own.  Indeed  I  might  say  they  were  almost 
antipodal,  and  never  until  his  memorable  struggle,  when 
President,  for  the  preservation  of  constitutional  liberty, 
as  I  believe,  had  any  portion  of  his  career  attracted  my 
sympathy.  But  aside  from  the  characteristics  which  he 
developed  in  that  struggle  he  exhibited  certain  virtues  as 
a  public  man  which  must  always  command  respect  and 
admiration — virtues  which,  if  they  are  not  rare  nowadays, 
are  certainly  not  the  commonest  attributes  of  those  who 
occupy  distinguished  station. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  an  honest  man,  a  truthful  man,  and 
incon-uptiblo.  He  obstinately  adhered  to  the  opinion 
which  ought  to  be,  but  is  not,  universally  accepted  and 
acted  upon,  that  personal  integrity  and  political  dishon- 
esty are  absolutely  irreconcilable  in  the  same  person.  In 
all  the  bitter  contests  through  which  he  passed,  (and  his 
career  in  this  respect  is  almost  without  a  parallel,)  his 
worst  enemy,  so  far  as  I  know,  never  attempted  to  prove, 
if  he  ever  charged,  that  Andrew  Johnson  was  a  coiTupt 
man. 

Whatever  his  faults,  or  vices  if  you  please — and,  I  pre- 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  73 

Slime,  like  all  other  men,  he  had  his  full  share  of  them — 
he  unquestionably  had  intense  convictions,  to  which  he 
clung  with  fearless  devotion  and  for  which  he  battled 
with  manly  courage.  Among  these,  sir,  none  were  more 
conspicuous  than  his  faith  in  the  doctrines  of  the  fathers 
touching  the  limitations  of  the  Constitution  nnd  his  firm 
belief  in  the  maxim  that  purity  of  administration  is  essen- 
tial to  the  life  of  free  government. 

If  his  almost  fanatical  love  of  the  Union  caused  him  at 
times  to  assent  to  the  use  of  arbitrary  power,  he  still 
always  proclaimed  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution.  If 
con-uption  in  administration  occurred  during  his  Presi- 
dency, no  one  ever  accused  him  of  being  even  remotely 
connected  with  it.  He  at  least  understood  the  principles 
and  sympathized  with  the  spirit  of  repubhcan  institutions. 
He  did  not  think  that  personal  comfort  and  pecuniary 
benefit  were  the  chief  ends  to  be  aimed  at  in  seeking  pub- 
lic offices.  He  did  not  accept  them  at  the  hands  of  his 
countrymen  as  a  debt  due  to  him,  and  did  not  administer 
them,  as  small  men  always  do,  in  accordance  with  his 
personal  feelings  and  interests.  He  considered  himself 
the  servant  of  the  people,  bound  by  his  oath  to  be  careful 
and  diligent  in  looking  out,  not  for  his  own,  but  for  their 
interests.  He  never  was  one  of  those  who  were  called, 
and  aptly  called  in  the  civil-service-commission  report, 
"the  banditti  of  politics  and  the  pawnbrokers  of  patron- 
age." 

He  may  not  have  been  a  broad-minded  statesman,  in 

10 


74  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   WADDELL   ON   THE 


the  ordinary  acceptation  of  that  term,  but  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  in  his  youth  there  was  no  opportunity 
afforded  him  for  broad  culture,  and  that  he  did  not  even 
have  a  patron  to  secure  for  him  education  at  the  pubhc 
expense.  He  certainly  was  not  a  classical  scholar.  It 
would  seem  that  he  did  not  even  know  what  nepos  meant, 
and  was  utterly  insensible  to  the  charm  that  lies  hidden 
behind  the  words  dona  ferentes.  But  in  practical  ability, 
in  power  as  a  debater,  whether  before  popular  assemblies 
or  legislative  assemblies,  and  in  extensive  information  in 
the  domain  of  politics,  he  was  by  no  means  deficient.  His 
long  and  active  public  service  in  association  with  some  of 
the  wisest  and  ablest  statesmen  of  this  land,  improved, 
enlarged,  and  liberalized  his  naturally  powerful  intellect 
to  a  degree  which  may  perhaps  justify  his  assignment  to 
a  place  among  the  ablest  of  our  Chief  Magistrates,  and 
certainly  to  one  very  far  above  some  of  them. 

After  his  death  some  pious  investigator,  I  believe, 
claimed  to  have  discovered  that  he  was  an  infidel.  I  have 
ver}^  good  evidence  to  disprove  that ;  but  while  person- 
ally I  know  not  how  that  may  have  been,  I  do  know  that 
while  he  was  alive  and  in  office  he  was  too  ^od  a  patriot 
to  seek  to  excite  a  refigious  persecution  against  any  por- 
tion of  his  fellow-citizens.  If  he  had  religious  views  of 
any  kind,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  they  were  his  own,  and 
were  arrived  at  after  mature  deliberation  and  reflection ; 
but  whatever  they  were,  sir,  he  never  sought  to  make 
political  capital  out  of  them. 


LIFE  AND  OHARACTEK,   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  <5 


Mr.  Speaker,  Andrew  Johnson  has  gone  to  hia  long  rest, 
as  sooner  or  later  each  and  all  of  us  must  go.  After  a 
long  and  laborious  career,  begun  in  poverty,  ignorance, 
and  friendlessn^ss,  but  crowned  throughout  its  course  with 
earthly  honors,  he  now  confronts  the  mysteries  of  eter- 
nity. It  may  possibly  be  some  consolation  to  his  friends 
to  believe  that  if  for  his  deeds  done  in  the  body  he  be  im- 
peached in  his  new  state  of  existence,  he  will  at  least  have 
angels  for  his  prosecutors  and  the  Merciful  One  for  his 
judge.  That  is  the  only  consolation  that  is  left  to  any  of 
us  in  contemplating  the  events  of  a  future  life. 

I  do  not  hold  up  Mr.  Johnson  as  an  exemplar  either  in 
morals  or  in  politics.  Very  few  are  the  men  to  whom  I 
could  pay  that  tribute.  But,  sir,  the  qualities  which  I 
have  ascribed  to  him,  and  which  he  possessed,  may  well 
be  emulated  by  some  of  his  contemporaries  upon  whom 
fortune  or  an  inscrutable  Providence  has  devolved  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  pi\blic  office.  Upon  many 
of  them  have  more  brilliant  gifts  been  bestowed.  They 
have  been  more  learned,  more  eloquent,  more  popular 
than  he.  But  not  of  every  one  of  them  can  it  be  said,  as 
of  him,  he  was  honest,  he  was  truthful,  he  was  incorrupt- 
ible. These  are  traits,  sir,  which  his  native  State  of 
North  Carolina  will  never  cease  to  honor  in  any  American 
statesman,  whether  born  within  her  borders  or  not.  And 
therefore,  as  a  tribute  to  them,  as  developed  in  Andrew 
Johnson,  she  now  lays  her  wreath  upon  his  tomb. 


76  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THORNBURGH  ON  THE 


Address  of  Mr.  Thornburgh,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  Speaker,  representing  in  part  that  section  of  the 
State  of  Tennessee  which  was  the  home  of  Andrew  John- 
son, 1  desire  to  express  my  respect  for  his  character  and 
veneration  for  his  memory.  My  colleague  has  mentioned 
the  incidents  of  the  early  life  and  the  long  public  career 
of  Andrew  Johnson  with  an  interesting  completeness  that 
renders  unnecessary  further  recital.  Yet  an  expression 
of  sorrow  for  his  loss,  and  appreciation  for  the  great  vir- 
tues he,  as  a  man  and  a  statesman,  possessed,  cannot  be 
inappropriate,  coming  from  one  who,  though  differing 
upon  political  questions,  enjoyed  his  friendship  from 
childhood. 

My  earliest  recollections  of  political  contests  and  public 
discussions  is  connected  with  the  conflicts  and  triumphs 
which  so  characterized  his  history.  There  was  a  period 
of  his  life  when  I  had  almost  daily  opportunities  to  study 
his  character  and  observe  the  manner  in  which  he  per- 
formed important  and  arduous  duties  that  devolved  upon 
him.  This  was  when  Mr.  Johnson  was  military  governor 
of  Tennessee.  It  was  the  stormiest  day  of  our  national 
history.  The  country  was  in  the  midst  of  civil  war,  and 
there  are  few  of  us  here  wlio  have  forgotton  what  civil 
war  means.     In  this  important  and  responsible  position 


LIFE  AND   CHAKACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  77 

he  exhibited  many  of  those  great  quahties  which  made 
him  a  fit  ruler  in  times  of  disorder  and  turbulence.  He 
was  fertile  in  resources,  zealous,  earnest,  and  faithful. 
There  were  no  precedents  to  guide  him  in  the  arduous 
duties  of  his  ofiice.  His  vigorous  mind,  resolute  purpose, 
strong  will,  were  necessary  in  the  work  required,  while 
that  work  itself  illustrated  his  love  of  justice,  his  courage, 
energy,  and  patriotism.  War  had  almost  obliterated  all 
traces  of  government  in  Tennessee.  The  State  was  a 
chaos,  out  of  which  he  was  to  bring  order.  The  desola- 
tion of  contending  araiies  made  it  necessary  for  him  to 
create  supphes,  house  the  homeless,  clothe  the  naked, 
feed  the  poor.  The  courts  were  closed  to  the  redress  of 
grievances,  and  justice  was  to  be  administered  by  him. 
Thousands  of  Union  people  flocked  to  him,  begging  for 
supplies  and  arms.  And  yet  he  proved  equal  to  the  task 
before  him.  He  was  civil  chief  magistrate,  a  general, 
judge,  and  quartermaster,  and  a  benefactor  of  the  poor. 
He  worked  with  constant,  tireless  energy,  bringing  order 
out  of  confusion,  re-instating  the  coui'ts  of  justice,  re- 
dressed grievances,  and  fed,  sheltered,  and  clothed  the 
homeless  poor,  without  regard  to  the  Army  in  which  their 
natural  protectors  might  be  found.  From  the  Union  men 
around  him  he  raised  an  army  and  sent  them  to  the  field, 
where  they  did  gallant  service  for  the  Government;  and 
when  the  capture  of  his  capital  was  threatened,  he  refused 
to  abandon  it  with  our  retreating  Army,  but,  stem  and 
unfaltering,  stood  a  bulwark  for  its  defense. 


78  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THORNBURGH  ON  THE 

But  all  this  has  become  a  part  of  the  history  of  the 
country.  Andrew  Johnson  never  faltered  in  his  devo- 
tion to  the  Union.  With  unsurpassed  earnestness  he 
devoted  every  faculty  of  body  and  mind  to  a  successful 
re-establishment  of  a  united  republic,  looking  forward 
anxiously  to  the  hour  when  he  could  bring  his  State 
back  into  the  Union  and  could  see  her  star  once  more 
emblazoned  on  his  country's  banner.  The  most  notable 
features  in  Andrew  Johnson's  life  and  character  were  his 
humble  origin,  his  utter  want  of  early  education,  his  faith- 
ful devotion  to  the  principles  he  espoused,  his  great 
courage  and  indomitable  will.  To  these  circumstances  in 
his  history  and  these  traits  in  his  character  can  be  traced, 
in  my  opinion,  the  two  most  important  events  in  his  life. 
Without  these  characteristics  he  might  not  have  stood  on 
the  floor  of  the  Senate  the  solitary  representative  from 
the  seceding  States,  and  have  made  that  memorable 
speech  on  the  27th  of  July,  1861,  which  was  so  full  of 
the  deepest  political  reseach  and  the  most  thorough  and 
unselfish  patriotism.  Starting  with  the  maxim  that  ^^Sahis 
respiihliccD  suprema  /ex,"  he  said : 

Tlie  time  has  come  when  the  Government  should  put  forth  its  entire  power 
and  sustain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitutiou  and  laws  made  in  pursuance 
thereof.  If  we  have  uo  government,  let  the  delusion  be  dispelled,  let  the  dreaui 
pass  away,  and  let  the  people  of  the  United  States  and  the  nations  of  the  earth 
know  at  once  we  have  uo  government.  If  we  have  a  government  based  on  the 
intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  American  people,  let  that  great  fact  be  now  estab- 
lished ;  and  when  once  established,  this  Government  will  be  on  a  more  enduring 
and  perma  ent  basis  than  it  ever  was  before.  I  still  have  confidence  in  the 
integrity,  the  virtue,  the  intelligence,  and  the  patriotism  of  the  great  mass  of 
the  people;  and  so  believing,  I  intend  to  stand  by  the  Government  of  my  fathers 
to  the  last  extremity. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  79 

Sentiments  like  these,  coming'  at  that  peculiar  crisis  in 
the  country's  history  from  a  Southern  Senator,  re-echoed 
through  the  land,  and  gave  rebuke  to  those  who  could 
find  no  power  in  the  Constitution  for  national  self-preser- 
vation, and  infused  new  confidence  and  courage  to  those 
preparing  for  the  great  conflict  that  was  so  soon  to  follow. 
But  while  Andrew  Johnson   was  resolute  in  war,  no 
sooner  had  the  echoes  of  the  last  battle  died  away  than  he 
became  an  earnest  advocate  of  a  reunited  people.     lie 
sought  to  bury  all  past  animosities,  and  to  cultivate  the 
nobler  feelings  of  kindness,  forgiveness,  and  fraternal  love. 
Few  men  in  history  could  have  held  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment as  its  chief  executive  at  that  time,  when  human  pas- 
sions had  become  inflamed  by  the  memories  of  tliis  recent 
terrible  war,  and  have  determined  the  novel  and  anoma- 
lous questions  presented  without  encountering  the  antago- 
nism of  some  leading  statesmen,  and  inviting  that  bitter 
denunciation  of  calumny  and  vilification  which  now  seems 
to  be  visited  upon  all  who  have  attained  to  exalted  posi- 
tion, and  who  have  rendered  great  services  to  their  country 
and  to  mankind.    His  marked  individuality,  great  tenacity 
of  purpose,  and  iron  will,  brought  him  his  full  measure  of 
honest  opposition  and  malignant  aspersion.     But  even  the 
genius  of  slander  itself  had  not  the  audacity  to  charge 
Andrew  Johnson  wath  dishonesty  in  any  act  of  his  long 
and  eventful  public  life. 

I  shall  leave  it  for  others,  his  contemporaries  and  asso- 
ciates, to  speak  more  in  detail  of  his  career  while  in  the 


80  ADDEESS  OF  MR.  THORNBUKGH  ON  THE 

two  Houses  of  Congress  and  while  President  of  the  na- 
tion. 

A  great  leader  of  the  people,  an  orator  possessing  pecu- 
liar power  to  inspire,  persuade,  convince,  and  control  the 
honest  masses  of  the  country,  has  passed  the  opening 
portals  of  the  grave,  and  none  feel  his  loss  more  keenly 
or  lament  his  death  more  sincerely  than  the  humbler  classes, 
from  whose  ranks  he  sprang  and  whose  peculiar  champion 
he  never  ceased  to  be.  His  dust  now  mingles  with  that  of 
Jackson  and  Polk  in  the  bosom  of  Tennessee.  Peace  to 
his  ashes,  honor  to  his  memory. 

Let  him  rest ;  it  is  not  often 

That  bis  soul  hath  known  repose. 
Let  him  lest ;  they  rest  but  seldom 

Whose  snecesses  challenge  foes. 
Ho  was  weary,  worn  with  watching; 

His  life-crown  of  power  hath  i)resse<l 
Oft  on  temples  sadly  aching; 

He  was  weary,  let  him  rest. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  81 


Address  of  Mr.  Conger,  of  Michigan. 

Mr.  Speaker,  in  this  age  of  the  world  the  development 
and  character  of  the  individual  man  is  the  result  of 
generations  of  human  growth.  The  victories  of  the  war- 
rior, the  achievements  of  the  statesman,  and  the  fanciful 
creations  of  the  poet  are  made  possible  by  the  existing 
conditions  of  society,  and  are  so  evoked  from  and  com- 
mingled with  the  innumerable  circumstances  of  human 
progress  as  to  render  it  uncertain  to  what  extent  they  origi- 
nate in  the  individual  intellect  and  will,  and  how  far  they 
are  the  result  of  myriad  unseen  agencies. 

In  the  dawn  of  human  existence  man,  himself  a  new- 
wrought  miracle,  without  revelation  or  tradition,  wandered 
amid  the  marvels  of  a  new  creation  to  wonder,  admire, 
and  adore.  We  can  scarcely  realize  through  what  cen- 
turies he  must  have  passed  from  that  primitive  period  of 
child-like  simplicity  and  instinctive  adoration,  tlu-ough 
the  slow  development  of  the  idea  of  the  heroic,  the  beau- 
tiful, the  rehgious,  and  the  practical,  until  he  could  com- 
prehend the  laws  of  the  physical  and  intellectual  world, 
and  tower  among  millions  of  the  human  race  the  type 
and  representative  of  the  marvelous  civilization  of  the 
nineteenth  century !  Every  age  has  marked  man's  prog- 
ress, and  every  great  advance  in  mental  and  moral  cul- 


11 


82 


ADDRESS  OP  MR.   CONGER   ON  THE 


ture  has  had  some  typical  representative  of  the  aggregate' 
development  of  his  social  and  moral  attributes. 

On  this  occasion  we  pause  for  a  moment  in  the  busy 
avocations  of  life  to  pay  the  tribute  of  our  respect  to  the 
memory  of  one  of  our  distinguished  compeers,  who,  hav- 
ing exemplified  almost  every  vicissitude  of  earthly  fortune, 
having  attained  the  highest  place  of  power,  and  having 
afterward  entered  upon  a  pathway  untrodden  by  any  pre- 
decessor, has  obeyed  the  inexorable  mandate — to  rest  from 
his  labors  on  earth. 

I  have  thought,  sir,  while  other  gentlemen  portrayed  his 
life  and  character  more  accurately  and  eloquently  than  I 
have  the  ability  to  do,  it  might  not  be  inappropriate  for  me 
to  refer  to  some  peculiarities  in  the  life  and  character  of 
this  distinguished  citizen  which  illustrate  conditions  of  for- 
tune that  could  only  exist  in  American  civilization  and 
under  American  institutions. 

Sir,  I  have  believed  from  early  youth,  with  emotions  of 
pride  and  gratitude  which  I  have  no  language  to  express, 
that  we  live  in  an  age  and  are  citizens  of  a  country  whose 
laws,  policy,  and  free  institutions,  in  their  true  intention 
and  result,  opened  to  every  child  of  the  Republic  alike  the 
royal  road  to  education,  culture,  distinction,  and  honor — 
the  royal  highway  that  leads  to  everything  and  all  things 
that  are  garnered  in  our  grand  inheritance  of  freedom  to 
which  the  immortal  soul  might  honorably  aspire,  across 
which  arrogance  should  build  no  barricade  and  ignorance 
no  trench ;  where  wealth  should  never  jostle  the  poor  nor 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  83 

pride  ovemde  the  humble;  where  vhi;ue  might  pass  with 
fearless  step  and  devotion  might  worship  at  every  way- 
side shrine! 

With  such  reflections,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  commend  to  my 
countrymen  the  study  of  the  life  and  character  of  Andrew 
Johnson  as  illustrating  more  distinctly  than  any  other 
example  which  now  occurs  to  my  memory  the  spirit,  the 
tendencies,  and  the  possibilities  of  American  institutions. 

Neither  the  occasion  nor  my  own  inclination  will  permit 
more  than  a  brief  reference ;  but  the  American  citizen  may 
inquire  with  pride.  Where  else  could  the  child  of  poverty 
and  ignorance,  under  like  circumstances,  have  risen  to  the 
highest  honors  of  the  State  ?  In  what  other  land  and 
under  what  other  civilization  could  woman  have  become 
at  once  the  wife  and  the  teacher  of  the  wandering  me- 
chanic, and,  accompanying  and  encouraging  his  upward 
progress  to  honor  and  power,  could  have  imparted  to  her 
daughters  such  delicate  culture  and  gentle  training  that, 
even  amid  the  splendors  of  the  Capital  and  the  throngs  of 
beauty,  they  could  disarm  envy  by  their  virtues  and  excite 
admiration  by  their  simplicity  ? 

Under  what  other  division  of  power  between  the  Gen- 
eral Government,  the  States,  and  the  people,  could  the 
subject  of  an  impeachment  and  prosecution  the  most  re- 
markable and  determined  ever  witnessed  in  our  land  have 
undergone  so  fiery  an  ordeal,  and  afterward  so  far  com- 
manded the  respect  of  political  friends  and  foes  that  his 
return  to  the  Senate  should  meet  with  general  approval  ? 


84  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CONGER  ON  THE 

That  he  was  gifted  with  remarkable  powers  none  will 
deny.  With  a  strong  intellect,  untiring  industry,  an 
indomitable  will,  and  an  ambition  that  gathered  intensity 
alike  from  defeat  and  success;  with  little  of  that  personal 
sympathy  which  could  control  the  multitude  by  its  electric 
influence,  and  with  a  directness  and  obstinacy  arising  in 
part  from  physical  organization,  but  more  from  the  mental 
habitudes  peculiar  to  the  varied  circumstances  of  his  con- 
dition, his  life  exhibits  a  greater  variety  of  the  phases  of 
character  that  spread  all  the  way  from  unworthy  littleness 
to  moral  grandeur  than  that  of  any  other  statesman  whose 
name  illustrates  American  history. 

He  was  considerate  in  his  friendships,  vindictive  in  his 
enmities,  unforgiving  of  injury,  but  moderate  in  victory. 
With  a  blunt  honesty  of  purpose  and  acknowledged  integ- 
rity of  character,  he  marshaled  his  forces,  and  controlled 
the  situation  more  through  an  involuntary  respect  and  an 
undefined  fear  than  from  personal  favor  and  affection. 

Remembering  his  early  life,  he  was  ever  the  friend  of 
the  poor,  from  whose  ranks  he  had  risen,  yet  lacked  the 
loftiness  of  soul  which  would  have  prevented  his  taking  an 
unworthy  pride  in  humbling  the  pretensions  of  wealth  and 
the  ostentation  of  birth. 

His  zeal  for  the  homeless  and  landless  poor  never  flagged, 
and  his  indomitable  love  of  the  Union  and  struggles  for 
the  perpetuity  of  free  institutions  challenge  the  admira- 
tion of  the  world ;  and  even  his  ceaseless  reiterations  of 
his  love  of  the  Constitution,  although  exciting  the  ridicule 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  85 

of  political  opponents,  were  in  harmony  with  his  life-long 
actions  and  professions. 

Sir,  there  were  occasions  in  his  life,  rendered  sublime  by 
his  heroic  courage  and  indomitable  zeal  for  the  honor,  the 
Union,  and  the  Constitution  of  his  country,  which  history 
will  emblazon  upon  its  pages ;  and  when  the  prejudices 
and  passions  of  the  hour  shall  have  passed  away,  posterity 
will  inscribe  them  upon  his  monument. 

Even-handed  justice  will  attribute  his  foibles  and  faults 
to  his  early  struggles  with  poverty  and  toil,  the  im- 
perfection of  early  culture  and  education,  and  to  the 
anomalous  condition  of  the  social  organization  in  the  midst 
of  which  he  lived ;  while  the  memory  of  his  countrymen 
will  linger  around  those  nobler  manifestations  of  his  cour- 
age and  patriotism  in  preserving  those  glorious  institu- 
tions that  invited  him  from  the  depths  of  ignorance  and 
want  to  the  high  places  of  usefulness  and  honor. 

His  illustrious  example  will  quicken  the  genius  and 
stimulate  the  energy  of  ten  thousand  children  of  poverty 
and  toil  to  strive  for  higher  culture  and  search  for  nobler 
fields  of  usefulness  and  honor,  and  it  may  admonish  the 
patriot  and  statesman  with  renewed  emphasis,  that  in  the 
more  perfect  education  and  virtue  of  all  the  people  lies  the 
only  safe  reliance  for  the  perpetuity  of  our  free  institu- 
tions and  the  future  glory  of  our  country. 

Sir,  there  are  nobler  things  in  life  than  wealth  and 
power ;  there  are  far  richer  treasures  for  the  citizens  than 
lie  hidden  in  the  mine,  for  neither  the  vast  outlines  of  our 


86  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CONGER  ON  THE 

domain  nor  the  illimitable  wealth  within  its  borders, 
neither  the  grandeur  of  our  encircling"  mountains  nor  the 
beauty  of  our  silver  streams,  neither  rapidly-multiplying 
States,  populous  cities,  nor  the  unrivaled  expanse  of  rural 
cultivation  can  awaken  in  the  breast  such  emotions  of 
pride  and  patriotism  as  the  unfaltering  belief  that  through 
all  and  over  all  this  glorious  land  are  established  such  laws 
and  such  institutions  as  will  preserve  forever,  as  the  irre- 
versible inheritance  of  the  American  people,  "the  absolute 
equality  of  manhood  and  the  universal  enjoyment  of  equal 
rights." 


LIFE  AND   CnARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  87 


Address  of  Mr.  Young,  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  Speaker,  in  the  hour  of  grief,  in  the  ministrations 
of  affliction,  when  the  sable  drapery  of  mourning  is  drawn 
in  heavy  folds  around  us,  and  the  mind  is  overshadowed 
with  gloom,  silence  is  sometimes  more  eloquent  and  im- 
pressive than  the  chaste  rhetoric  of  the  scholar  or  the 
flowing  declamation  of  the  orator. 

In  the  ceremonies  of  sorrow,  in  the  expressions  of  regret 
and  honor  to  the  dead,  the  downcast  face  and  drooping 
eye  sometimes  speak  the  emotions  of  the  heart  in  language 
more  touching  and  truthful  than  the  studied  and  polished 
utterances  of  the  eulogist  or  the  glowing  phrases  clothed 
in  the  beautiful  imagery  of  the  poet. 

After  what  has  been  so  fittingly  and  eloquently  said  by 
my  colleagues  who  have  just  spoken,  I  might  with  pro- 
priety keep  my  place  among  the  silent  spectators  of  these 
solemn  and  impressive  ceremonies  without  by  speaking  in- 
cuiTing  the  risk  of  detracting  aught  from  the  beauty  of  the 
tributes  which  they  have  offered  to  the  memory  and  public 
services  of  the  distinguished  citizen  of  our  State  whose 
death  has  just  been  formally  announced  to  this  body; 
and,  indeed,  I  should  have  stood  reverently,  sadly,  but  in 
silence  before  the  altar  of  the  people's  sorrow,  this  day  un- 
veiled in  the  council-chamber  of  the  nation,  but  for  the 


ADDRESS   OF  MR.   YOUNa  ON  THE 


reason  that  had  I  done  so  I  should  not  have  reflected  the 
wishes  nor  met  the  expectations  of  a  large  number  of  those 
who  clothed  me  with  the  honors  of  an  American  legislator 
and  sent  me  here  to  speak  in  their  name. 

But  in  the  little  which  I  shall  say  expressive  of  their  and 
my  own  estimate  of  the  character  of  the  distinguished  man 
whose  fortunes  they  followed  with  equal  courage  in  the 
gloom  of  defeat  and  the  brightness  of  success,  I  shall  not 
exaggerate  his  virtues  by  the  extravagant  laudations  of 
the  friendly  eulogist,  nor  unveil  his  faults  with  the  hostile 
hand  of  the  carping  critic.  The  one  is  the  task  of  the 
orator  upon  the  rostrum,  the  poet  in  song,  and  the  enthu- 
siast in  history,  while  the  other  is  the  congenial  work  of 
those  who  forget  the  good  and  remember  only  the  evil 
that  men  do,  and  never  learn  to  cast  the  mantle  of  charity 
even  over  the  graves  of  those  with  whom  they  have  strug- 
gled in  life. 

Of  great  men,  whether  living  or  dead,  the  truth  may 
be  fitly  spoken.  The  scales  in  which  their  character  is 
weighed  may  be  held  with  an  impartial  hand,  no  matter 
whether  good  or  evil  disturb  the  equal  poise. 

Andrew  Johnson,  when  living,  was  not  wont  to  shrink 
from  any  combat  nor  quail  before  any  foe;  and  now  that 
he  is  dead,  and  the  story  of  his  checkered  life  is  passing 
into  history,  there  is  perhaps  but  little  cause  to  invoke  the 
eulogy  of  his  friends  or  to  supplicate  the  forbearance  of 
his  enemies.  To  say  that  he  was  a  perfect  man,  that  no 
fault  marred  the  symmetry  of  his  character,  that  no  error 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 


89 


of  action,  no  weakness  or  vice  of  nature  dimmed  the  luster 
of  his  fame,  would  be  to  raise  him  above  the  level  of  hu- 
manity and  clothe  him  with  attributes  not  found  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  But  as  the  purest  gold  is  alloyed 
with  baser  metal,  as  some  ingrain  flaw  dims  the  sparkling 
light  of  the  rarest  jewel,  so  the  fame  of  the  most  exalted 
human  character  is  shadow  by  some  human  frailty. 

The  page  upon  which  the  future  historian  shall  record 
the  career  and  achievements  of  Andrew  Johnson  will  be 
fraught  with  deeper  interest  to  the  thoughtful  mind  than 
almost  any  other  in  the  great  volume  of  American  history. 
The  story  of  his  life,  from  the  time  he  laid  aside  the  imple- 
ments of  the  humble  artisan,  through  all  the  gradations  of 
political  preferment  until  the  day,  only  a  little  while  ago, 
when  he  was  laid  in  the  grave,  is  a  record  of  bold  concep- 
tion, high  aims,  grand  struggles,  and  marvelous  triumphs. 

To  relate  his  struggles  and  his  successes,  his  combats 
and  his  victories,  would  fill  the  pages  of  many  volumes ; 
to  even  group  together  without  comment  the  grander  and 
more  dramatic  events  of  his  wonderful  career,  from  the 
humble  workshop  of  the  country  village  to  the  stately 
mansion  of  the  nation's  rulers,  would  extend  my  remarks 
beyond  the  limits  fixed  by  the  proprieties  of  this  occa- 
sion. ^ 

Reaching  the  period  of  manhood  and  entenng  upon  the 
journey  of  life  without  fortune  or  friends,  unlearned  in 
the  lore  of  books,  not  even  acquainted  with  the  simple 
characters    which    make    their    silent    pages    speak  the 


12 


90 


ADDRESS    OF   ME.   YOUNG   ON   THE 


thoughts  of  Others  and  reveal  to  the  mind  the  rich  treasures 
of  human  learning,  he  grappled  with  and  overcame  these 
obstacles  to  greatness  with  the  same  tireless  energy  and 
persistent  courage  which  he  brought  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  every  undertaking  of  his  future  life. 

Endowed  by  nature  with  a  manhood  that  knew  no  fear, 
an  energy  that  knew  no  rest,  a  mind  original  and  unique 
in  its  cast,  which  no  system  of  ethics,  no  school  of  learn- 
ing, could  fetter  or  control,  his  character  stands  among  the 
figures  of  American  history  without  a  model,  grand  and 
striking  as  the  rugged  mountains  which  girdle  his  beauti- 
ful Tennessee  home. 

In  no  country  on  earth,  save  in  this  land  of  free  speech, 
free  thought,  and  free  institutions,  could  there  have  been 
such  a  career  as  Andrew  Johnson's.  Making  his  first 
appearance  as  a  legislator  and  representative  of  the  people 
in  the  village  council,  and  then  as  a  delegate  to  the  legis- 
lature of  his  State,  he  evinced  at  that  early  period  the 
same  inflexible  integrity,  stern  devotion  to  duty,  and  strict 
adherence  to  the  delegated  powers  of  a  public  servant 
which  governed  him  in  his  future  political  life. 

Growing  in  public  favor,  and  recognized  by  the  people 
as  the  champion  of  their  rights,  the  fearless  defender  of 
their  interests,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  National 
Congress,  and  then,  scarcely  known,  save  by  the  sturdy 
yeomenry  that  dwelt  among  the  mountains  and  in  the 
green  valleys  of  East  Tennessee,  he  entered  this  hall  and 
took  his  place  among  the  counselors  of  the  nation.     Here 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER    OF   ANDREW   JOHNSON. 


91 


he  found  a  fitting  field  for  the  exercise  of  those  wonderful 
powers  with  which  nature  had  gifted  him ;  here  he  entered 
an  arena  in  which  he  could  display  all  the  prowess  of  the 
mighty  athlete  which  he  was  soon  to  become. 

Elected  chief  magistrate  of  his  State,  he  filled  the  seat 
once  held  by  a  Sevier,  a  Carroll,  and  a  Polk  with  an 
ability  equal  to  his  illustrious  predecessors,  and  reflected 
renewed  honor  upon  the  great  Commonwealth  over  which 
he  presided. 

Fortune  still  smiling  upon  her  chosen  favorite,  he  was 
elected  by  the  legislature  of  Tennessee  a  Senator  in  the 
Congress  of  the  nation,  where  he  grappled  in  equal  combat 
with  the  great  orators  and  statesmen  who  then  composed 
that  august  body. 

Still  moving  onward  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  high  des- 
tiny allotted  him  by  nature,  he  was  called  by  the  voice  of 
the  people  to  the  second  highest  office  in  their  gift;  and 
before  its  mantle  had  scarcely  been  adjusted,  the  provi- 
dence of  God  placed  in  his  hand  the  scepter  wielded  by 
the  chief  ruler  of  our  great  Eepublic. 

This  brief  sketch  of  a  single  character,  this  short  story, 
so  plainly  told,  of  a  single  life,  covers  events  so  strange 
and  developments  so  startling,  one  might  well  suppose  that 
the  hand  of  the  romancer  had  seized  upon  the  pen  of  the 
historian  and  written  upon  a  page  swept  by  ihe  wand  of 
the  magician.  The  unlettered  youth,  the  country  rustic, 
becoming  by  his  own  unaided  exertions  a  polished  orator, 
a  learned  legislator,  a  great  leader  of  the  people,  and 


93  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   YOUNG  ON  THE 

finally  the  ruler  of  his  nation,  presents  a  picture  seldom 
drawn  by  the  pen  of  the  sober  historian. 

The  name  of  Andrew  Johnson  will  go  into  history 
coupled  with  the  great  events  which  attracted  the  interest 
and  attention  of  mankind  during  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 

Many  of  his  public  acts,  as  well  as  the  general  tenor  of 
his  life,  endeared  him  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  the  hearts 
of  the  people,  the  humble  masses  of  his  countrymen.  They 
followed  and  trusted  him  with  a  confidence  and  aftec- 
tionrarely  ever  accorded  before  to  an  American  poli- 
tician, and  in  the  strength  of  their  devotion  and  exube- 
rance of  their  enthusiasm  they  crowned  him  the  people's 
sovereign. 

Early  in  his  public  career  there  sprang  into  existence, 
as  the  off'ering  and  product  of  that  restless  spirit  wliich  has 
always  pervaded  American  politics,  ever  seeking  changes 
and  innovations,  a  party  organization  teaching  hostility  to 
a  large  class  of  our  people,  and  making  the  character  of 
their  religion  and  the  place  of  their  birth  the  test  of  politi- 
cal preferment.  Gathering  strength  by  the  novelty  of  its 
teachings,  and  crossing  the  border  of  surrounding  States, 
it  was  spreading  over  Tennessee  like  a  rushing  wave 
sweeping  away  all  opposition,  until  it  met  in  Andrew 
Johnson  a  stern,  relentless  foe,  under  whose  stalwart  blows 
it  was  shattered  to  atoms,  and  it  now  only  lives  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  past. 

No  marvel,  then,  that  every  man  of  foreign  birth,  who 
has  found  a  home  wpon  American  soil,  shelter  and  protec- 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OP  ANDREW  JOnNSON.  93 

tion  under  the  broad  banner  of  our  free  Government, 
honors  and  reveres  the  name  and  memory  of  the  enlight- 
ened statesman,  the  bold  and  generous  champion  who  bat- 
tled so  gallantly  to  maintain  for  them  the  rights  of  Ameri- 
can citizenship. 

Identified  with  the  people  in  all  their  feelings  and  sym- 
pathies, having  an  intuitive  perception  of  their  wants  and 
interests,  he  was  ever  active  in  the  furtherance  of  those 
measures  of  legislation  peculiarly  calculated  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  rights  and  the  advancement  of  their  hap- 
piness. 

While  his  unbending  will  and  strong  combative  nature 
made  him  smite  rudely  and  wrestle  fiercely  with  rival 
leaders  whom  he  encountered,  sometimes  bringing  upon 
him  the  enmity  of  the  great  and  the  powerful,  yet  the 
weak  and  defenseless  were  always  his  friends. 

Studying  profoundly  our  theory  of  government,  so  con- 
genial to  his  nature  and  instinctive  convictions,  he  became 
one  among  the  ablest  expounders  of  that  palladium  of  our 
liberties,  the  safeguard  of  our  rights,  the  Constitution  of 
our  country.  To  this,  as  he  construed  it,  he  adhered  with 
unyielding  firmness  during  all  his  long  official  life;  by 
this  he  was  guided  in  all  his  public  actions.  That  which 
fell  short  of  its  requirements  or  went  beyond  its  limits 
received  from  him  no  mild  rebuke,  no  gentle  touch,  but 
was  the  signal  of  instant  combat. 

Once  fixed  in  his  convictions,  he  followed  them  with  an 
energy  that  never  relaxed,  an  industry  that  never  tired,  a 


94  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   YOUNG   ON  THE 

vigilance  that  never  slept,  and  a  courage  that  never  fal- 
tered or  deserted  him. 

In  the  great  historical  events  which  transpired  during 
his  busy,  eventful  life  his  nature  rose  to  the  dignity;  of  the 
occasion,  and  in  all  the  changing  vicissitudes  of  his  career 
he  lost  none  of  that  fixedness  of  purpose  and  persistency 
of  will  which  carried  him  over  so  many  obstacles,  from 
the  obscurity  of  the  village  artisan  to  the  world-wide  fame 
of  the  great  commoner. 

Whether  basking  in  the  sunshine  of  popular  favor  as 
the  idol  of  the  hour  or  battling  against  the  storm  of  party 
proscription,  he  remained  steadfast  in  his  faith  of  the  final 
triumph  of  the  principles  for  which  he  contended,  the 
measures  which  he  advocated. 

When  the  foll}^  and  madness  of  the  American  people 
had  culminated  in  a  fierce  storm  of  civil  war;  when  mill- 
ions of  armed  men  rushed  to  battle ;  when  our  whole  social 
and  political  structure  reeled  and  trembled  in  the  terrible 
convulsion,  he  had  the  firmness  to  resist  the  entreaties  of  his 
friends,  the  allurements  of  the  highest  ambition  which  their 
partiality  could  have  gratified,  and  to  pursue  the  convic- 
tions which  led  him  in  a  different  direction. 

When,  in  the  heat  of  partisan  zeal,  before  the  quiet 
dignity  of  the  statesman  and  the  calm  reflection  of  the 
patriot  had  taken  the  place  of  the  frenzied  passions  and 
vindictive  enmities  engendered  by  the  war,  he  was  arraigned 
for  trial  before  hostile  judges,  charged  with  a  violation  of 
that  instrument  which  he  had  made  the  study  and  guide 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  95 

of  his  life,  here  he  appalled  his  accusers  and  won  the 
plaudits  of  the  world  by  a  dignity  and  moral  grandeur  of 
deportment  that  might  have  saved  Charles  of  England  from 
the  scaffold  and  a  monarch  of  France  from  dying  by  the 
guillotine. 

Firm  and  unbending  before  the  fickle  storm  of  public 
opinion,  which  was  for  the  time  beating  against  him,  and 
making  no  effort  to  change  its  current,  he  retired  from  his 
high  office  with  the  dignity  of  a  Roman  senator  and  the 
unpretending  patriotism  of  a  Cincinnatus,  and  returned  to 
the  home  in  the  mountains  from  which  he  had  so  often 
been  called  by  the  voice  of  the  people. 

He  presented  the  spectacle — all  too  rare  in  modern  his- 
tory— of  a  man  spending  an  entire  life-time  in  his  coun- 
try's service,  filling  the  highest  station  in  its  gift,  holding 
in  some  measure  both  its  purse  and  its  sword,  going  back 
in  the  evening  of  his  days  to  private  life  poorer  than  most 
of  those  who  give  only  ordinary  talents  to  the  usual  avo- 
cations of  life. 

No  bribe  ever  found  its  way  into  his  hand;  no  corrup- 
tion ever  stained  his  record;  and  it  was  the  pride  of  his 
life,  the  boast  of  his  friends,  that  even  his  enemies  have 
borne  willing  testimony  to  the  purity  of  his  private  and 
the  honesty  of  his  public  life. 

It  is  yet  too  soon  to  write  impartially  the  history  of  this 
remarkable  man.  His  combats  are  too  recent;  too  many 
of  the  foemen  with  whom  he  contended  are  still  living; 
the  blows  he  dealt  are  yet  too  keenly  felt.     The  snows  of 


96  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  YOUNG  ON  THE 

a  single  winter  have  not  yet  fallen  upon  his  new-made 
grave  in  the  village  church-yard.  In  it  let  him  rest  until 
a  future  generation,  unbiassed  by  the  friendship  or  enmity 
of  the  present,  shall  sit  in  judgment  upon  his  actions  and 
accord  him  that  place  in  history  to  which  he  shall  be  en- 
titled. 

The  thoughts,  feelings,  and  aspirations  which  have 
occupied  great  minds  in  life  have  sometimes  been  the 
burden  of  their  last  whisper  as  they  were  being  forever 
enveloped  in  the  gathering  shadows  of  death. 

When  the  great  Napoleon  lay  dying  in  exile,  long  after 
his  splendid  career  had  closed,  his  mind  wandered  back  to 
the  days  of  his  glory,  when  he  was  the  leader  of  those  in- 
vincible armies  whose  marches  over  Europe  were  lighted 
with  the  constant  blaze  of  victory:  he  whispered  with  fail- 
ing breath  the  same  martial  words  which  had  rung  over 
so  many  fields  of  battle. 

When  the  great  English  admiral,  the  heroic  Nelson, 
had  fought  his  last  fight,  had  won  his  last  great  victory, 
and  was  being  borne  bleeding,  dying,  from  the  bloody 
deck,  he  uttered  those  words  which  have  gone  into  his- 
tory and  been  inscribed  beside  his  name  high  up  upon 
the  roll  of  naval  heroes. 

Andrew  Johnson,  when  about  to  step  across  the  nar- 
row stream  which  divides  us  from  the  broad  ocean  of 
eternity  which  spreads  out  beyond,  when  the  sound  of  its 
rushing  waters  was  falling  upon  his  ear,  unmindful  of  tlie 
terrors  of  the  grim  specter  whose  shadowy  outline  was 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOUNSON.  97 

drawing  near,  said  to  those  around  him:  ''Let  my  body 
be  shrouded  in  the  flag  of  the  nation  and  my  head  be  pil- 
lowed upon  the  Constitution  of  my  country."  What 
grander  thought,  what  higher  aspiration,  could  fill  the 
mind  of  an  American  patriot  and  statesman  in  the  hour  of 
death ! 

No  wonder,  then,  that  those  antagonisms  growing  out 
of  party  differences  and  bitter  political  strifes  should  have 
been  softened  or  forever  obliterated  from  the  minds  of  his 
most  relentless  enemies,  and  that  all  over  the  civilized 
world  men  should  feel  that  a  great  spirit  had  fallen  when 
the  lightning's  flash,  flying  over  valleys,  along  mountains, 
and  under  the  billows  of  the  ocean,  brought  the  silent 
message,  "Andeew  Johnson  is  dead!" 

The  aphorism  that  "republics  are  ungrateful"  can  no 
longer  hold  a  place  in  truthful  history.  What  king  or 
potentate  ever  received  higher  honors  from  slaves  and 
courtiers  than  the  American  people  have  conferred  upon 
this  untitled  republican  leader,  making  him  the  chief 
ruler  of  their  nation  while  living,  and,  now  that  he  is  dead, 
the  representatives  of  fifty  millions  of  freemen  pause  in 
the  business  of  legislation  to  do  honor  to  his  memory? 

Every  people,  since  the  day  the  Romans  planted  their 
great  empire  upon  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  and  the  Greeks 
spread  their  civilization  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, have  done  honor  to  the  fame  and  achievements  of 
the  great  and  illustrious  of  their  countrymen  after  they 
were  dead,  whatever  judgment  they  awarded  them  when 


13 


98 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  YOUNa  ON  THE 


living,  and  they  have  filled  their  galleries  with  paintings 
and  studded  their  cities  thick  with  monuments  in  com- 
memoration of  their  deeds  and  in  honor  of  their  memory. 

Nor  have  we  been  less  generous  to  our  illustrious  dead 
than  other  and  older  nations  of  the  world.  The  canvas 
upon  which  their  features  have  been  portrayed  hangs 
from  the  pillars  and  decorates  the  walls  of  the  Capitol, 
while  their  forms,  cast  in  bronze  or  sculptured  in  marble, 
stand  in  the  alcoves  of  the  Rotunda  like  silent  sentinels 
guarding  the  citadel  of  free  institutions  and  American  lib- 
erty. And  though  the  glowing  canvas  may  fade,  the 
brass  corrode,  and  the  beautiful  marble  crumble  into 
dust,  yet  their  memory  will  live  in  story  and  song  as  long 
as  tradition  shall  dwell  in  the  human  mind,  and  until  the 
stream  of  human  history  shall  be  lost  in  the  waveless  sea 
of  oblivion.  Death  has  of  a  verity  been  hurling  its  shafts 
at  shining  marks,  and  taking  its  victims  from  the  circle  of 
the  nation's  great  men. 

Massachusetts  has  just  buried  Henry  Wilson,  her  own 
great  commoner,  who,  like  his  distinguished  compeer,  rose 
from  the  humblest  origin  to  the  highest  stations  and  most 
distinguished  honors,  and  the  emblems  of  mourning  that 
festoon  this  Hall  and  di'oop  with  the  half-mast  flag  of  our 
country  attest  the  nation's  sympathy  with  the  ancient 
Commonwealth  of  the  East 

In  the  performance  of  these  ceremonies,  it  would  be 
well  if  we  would  forever  forget  the  differences,  growing 
as  well  out  of  the  providence  of  God  as  the  folly  of  men. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON.  99 

which  have  so  long  and  so  unhappily  divided  those  whom 
the  interest  of  civilization  and  the  destiny  of  their  race 
require  to  be  brothers  not  only  in  political  relations  but 
in  social  feeling. 

It  were  better  if  we  could  consecrate  this  hour  to  the 
service  of  the  living  as  well  as  to  the  honor  of  the  dead 
by  burying  in  the  graves  of  Andrew  Johnson  and  Henry 
Wilson  the  bitterness  and  hatreds  which  have  so  long 
burned  in  the  hearts  of  our  people.  Let  Massachusetts 
and  Tennessee  join  hands  over  the  tombs  of  their  great 
statesmen  and  renew  that  broken  bond  of  political  union 
and  fraternal  affection  which  once  bound  them  so  nearly 
together. 

Though  they  have  entered  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  let  us  emerge  from  the  shadow  of  our  past  misfor- 
tunes into  the  full  brightness  of  that  day  the  coming  dawn 
of  which  already  begins  to  gild  with  golden  azure  the 
heavy  clouds  which  have  so  long  hung  upon  our  political 
horizon. 

Now,  in  the  opening  of  the  centennial  year  of  our  na- 
tional life,  before  the  coming  spring  shall  spread  its  ver- 
nal robe  over  the  graves  of  our  illustrious  dead,  let  the 
yawning  chasm  rent  by  the  throes  of  a  horrid  civil  war 
be  forever  closed,  and  the  blessings  of  prosperity,  good 
government,  and  perpetual  peace  be  vouchsafed  to  a 
people  who  have  made  themselves  worthy  to  receive 
them. 


100       ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THROCKMORTON  ON  THE 


Address  of  Mr.  Throckmorton,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  Speaker,  being  a  native  of  Tennessee,  and  having 
had  official  relations  with  Mr.  Johnson,  I  feel  it  to  be  a 
melancholy  duty  to  join  in  seconding  the  resolutions  now 
being  considered.  In  doing  so  I  desire  to  say  Mr.  John- 
son, by  what  he  was  and  by  what  he  did,  by  his  quali- 
ties, his  fortunes,  and  his  work,  is  entitled  to  prominent 
mention  among  the  great  leaders  of  his  age  and  his  coun- 
try. 

He  is  notably  a  representative  of  the  common  people 
of  the  land;  of  that  class  to  whom  the  Republic  must  look 
for  defense  against  foreign  foes,  upon  whose  broad  shoul- 
ders the  great  industrial  enterprises  that  minister  so  essen- 
tially to  the  necessities,  comforts,  and  civilization  of  the 
nation  rest;  and  who  furnish  the  common  sense  from 
which  the  overruling  sober  second  thought,  so  necessary 
to  the  preservation  of  om*  political  equipoise,  comes,  and 
the  sterling  integrity  that  prompts  all  sacrifices  and  impels 
all  great  endeavors  for  patriotic  purposes  against  either 
domestic  or  foreign  foes.  Without  the  advantages  of 
wealth,  social  or  influential  aids;  embarrassed  by  abject 
poverty;  with  the  burdens  of  a  dependent  family,  this 
child  of  the  people,  by  sturdy  toil,  won  his  honorable 
success.     He  achieved  competency,  acquired  knowledge, 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON,  101 

gained  public  notice  and  confidence;  and  from  the  hum- 
blest beginning  arose  step  by  step  to  the  highest  and 
most  influential  positions  attainable  by  the  most  gifted 
and  favored  of  the  Republic,  illustrating  most  fully  in  his 
career  the  beneficent  and  elevating  efi'ects  of  our  free  and 
liberal  institutions.  His  success  in  life  is  not  more  note- 
worthy in  the  magnitude  of  difficulties  surmounted  and 
the  honorable  ends  it  compassed  than  by  the  simple  and 
ordinary  method  by  which  it  was  accomplished.  No 
magician  preceded  or  accompanied  him,  by  wand  or  lamp, 
to  destroy  his  foes,  build  his  palaces,  or  win  his  castles; 
but,  living  under  institutions  that  furnished  equal  facili- 
ties for  all,  and  gave  equal  motives  to  well-doing  for 
each,  under  the  movings  of  a  great  nature  he  recognized 
the  dignity  of  labor  and  contemplated  the  victory  as 
much  and  as  certainly  as  the  resultant  thereof  as  does  the 
farmer  regard  the  harvest  as  the  result  of  his  toil.  Not 
by  trick,  nor  by  fortune,  nor  by  favor,  nor  by  fortuitous 
circumstances,  but  by  painstaking  labor,  he  conquered 
competency,  knowledge,  public  confidence,  influence,  po- 
sition, and  all  the  distinguishing  qualities  and  successes 
that  make  up  the  record  of  his  remarkable  career;  and  he 
leaves  as  a  legacy,  not  the  least  valuable  of  those  be- 
queathed to  his  country  in  his  example,  that  not  only 
may  the  humblest  citizen  aspire  to  a  career  as  honorable 
as  that  of  Andrew  Johnson,  but  that  none  are  so  poor  as 
not  to  possess  the  same  homely  appliances  of  success,  the 
diligent  use  of  which  rendered  him  so  distinguished. 


102        ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THROCKMORTON  ON  THE 

He  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  that  type  of  our  great 
men  who  have  been  distinguished  for  the  persistency  with 
which  they  have  adhered  to  their  poHtical  convictions. 
Born  in  the  State  of  North  CaroHna,  and  resident  in  Ten- 
nessee where  the  hero  of  New  Orleans  lived,  and  coming 
into  public  life  when  this  great  leader  was  prominent  in 
the  councils  that  governed  the  nation,  his  political  views 
belonged  to  the  school  of  that  great  man  rather  than  to 
either  those  of  Calhoun  or  Clay,  antagonizing  in  some 
sort  the  extremes  of  each  on  the  question  then  vexing  the 
public  mind  relative  to  the  supremacy  of  the  State  or  na- 
tional authority.  He  believed  in  the  sanctity  of  the  local 
governments,  because  guaranteed  in  their  functions  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  sisterhood  of  States;  yet  as  to  the 
political  relations  of  the  States  to  each  other  he  recog- 
nized the  Federal  authority  as  supreme.  When  in  1861 
his  section  embraced  the  Calhoun  theory  rather  than  the 
Jacksonian  view,  he  remained  steadfast  to  his  convictions, 
notwithstanding  the  violent  and  overwhelming  opposition 
of  his  section.  When  his  party,  while  he  was  President, 
went  to  the  other  extreme,  and  so  far  pressed  the  national 
idea  into  legislation  as  to  substantially  destroy  the  consti- 
tutional rights  and  authority  of  the  local  governments,  he 
refused  to  follow  then-  leadership,  and  stood  by  his  early 
convictions. 

Again,  he  recognized  in  his  early  public  life  the  su- 
premacy of  the  civil  authority  over  the  military,  as  guar- 
anteed by  the  Constitution.     In  later  life,  amid  the  dis- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  103 

tempers  and  passions  bred  by  civil  war,  no  partisan  con- 
siderations, no  persuasion  of  political  friends,  no  provoca- 
tion of  political  foes,  could  induce  him  to  ignore  or  vio- 
late this  cardinal  principle  of  our  institutions.  Still  an- 
other belief  of  his  youth  and  of  his  mature  years  was  one 
taught  him  when  he  was  poor  and  friendless,  and  which 
he  did  not  forget  when  he  attained  prosperity  and  dis- 
tinction, that  the  people  are  not  only  the  original  deposi- 
taries of  all  power,  under  our  form  of  government,  but 
that  they,  in  the  exercise  of  the  ballot  and  formation  and 
influence  of  an  intelligent  and  wholesome  public  opinion, 
are  the  conservators  of  free  institutions.  He  was  a  man 
emphatically  of  the  people,  feeling  that  his  personal  citi- 
zenship exceeded  in  dignity  any  official  position  that  he 
might  hold;  and  he  retained  through  life  a  profound  con- 
fidence in  the  popular  integrity  and  judgment.  And 
when  any  great  exigency  was  upon  the  country  he  looked 
not  to  cliques,  nor  to  caucuses,  nor  to  political  conven- 
tions for  relief  or  a  wise  solution  of  pending  problems, 
but  he  always  felt  that,  with  free  speech  and  a  free  press, 
the  popular  reference  was  the  wisest,  and  always  awaited 
the  settlement  by  the  people  of  the  gravest  questions  with 
perfect  confidence.  He  believed  that  not  only  the  patri- 
otism but  the  common  sense  of  the  people  would  be  equal 
to  any  demand  the  country  might  make  upon  them,  his 
consistency  appearing  not  in  uniform  affiliation  with  any 
of  the  great  parties,  but  in  his  persistent  adherence  to  his 
convictions,  despite  party  changes  and  party  considerations. 


104       ADDRESS  OF  ME.  THROCKMORTON  ON  THE 

Finally,  Andrew  Johnson  deserved  well  of  the  whole 
country,  and  especially  so  of  the  South;  not  only  because 
a  citizen  and  an  efficient  representative  of  the  interests  of 
that  section  in  the  highest  councils  of  the  nation,  but  par- 
ticularly because  of  the  policy  pursued  by  him  pending  the 
existence  of  the  trying  ordeal  to  which  that  section  was 
subjected  in  the  process  of  political  rehabilitation. 

When  the  country,  by  the  very  crash  of  the  conflict 
through  which  its  unity  and  integrity  were  preserved, 
seemed  to  have  been  bewildered  and  cut  loose  from  its 
moorings,  and  constitutional  methods  of  restoration  were 
deemed  inadequate  and  were  abandoned  as  insufficient, 
and  peace  and  restoration  were  sought  by  proscription, 
he  stood  firm  amid  the  general  strife  and  wild  confusion, 
imbued  with  the  generous  spirit  and  proposing  to  carry 
out  the  catholic  and  brave  measures  of  his  great  and  la- 
mented predecessor.  He,  by  counsel  and  message,  by 
act  and  deed,  while  appreciating  the  fact  that  we  were 
brethren  separated  from  each  other  because  of  radically 
varying  conceptions  of  the  Constitution,  honestly  enter- 
tained, and  not  that  either  party  was  essentially  vicious, 
or  recreant  to  the  traditions  of  the  country  or  the  mem- 
ory of  the  fathers,  perceived  that  political  restoration 
brought  privileges  as  broad  as  the  duties  that  it  imposed, 
and  that  no  re-adjustment  could  be  real  that  did  not  pro- 
ceed on  the  basis  of  mutual  respect,  and  did  not  conclude 
and  culminate  in  mutual  good-will;  and  that  these  great 
ends  could  only  be  attained  and  secured  by  constitutional 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF  ANDREW   JOHNSON. 


105 


methods.  He  abated  nothing  in  his  demand  for  obedi- 
ence to  law,  yielded  nothing  of  his  love  of  country,  but 
made,  or  endeavored  to  make,  reconstruction  as  little 
humiliating  to  the  defeated  people  of  my  section,  and 
as  little  onerous,  as  the  facts  and  necessities  of  the  great 
occasion  would  permit. 

A  man  of  strong  will,  sometimes  he  seemed  arbitrary; 
of  positive  convictions,  he  seemed  dogmatic;  of  compre- 
hensive views,  looking  not  only  at  the  beginning  but  to 
the  end,  he  seemed  impracticable;  of  profound  convic- 
tions, and  not  swayed  by  considerations  of  expediency, 
he  seemed  unreasonable.  With  life's  victory  won  by  a 
struggle  so  sternly  earnest  that  the  nature  developed  by 
the  very  discipline  that  made  it  large  and  imposing  be- 
came somewhat  indurated,  yet  in  simple  manliness,  sturdy 
integrity,  and  a  personal  fidelity  to  friend  and  country 
that  never  wavered,  his  was  a  grand  character;  and,  take 
him  all  in  all — his  beginning,  his  work,  and  the  end — he  has 
not  left  his  peer,  and  we  shall  scarcely  in  this  generation 
look  upon  his  like  again. 

His  messages  to  Congress,  in  my  judgment,  rank  among 
the  ablest  of  American  state'papers,  and  will  be  regarded 
in  the  future  as  among  the  strongest  vindications  of  the 
rights  of  the  citizen  and  the  States  that  have  been  pro- 
duced by  the  statesmanship  of  our  country. 

When  that  auspicious  day  shall  come,  as  I  trust  it  will 
at  no  distant  period,  that  the  passions  and  prejudices  en- 
gendered by  the  late  sectional  strife  have  been  banished 


14 


soif-- 


Micro^'':'nsd 


106  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

from  the  hearts  of  our  people  forever;  when  the  American 
mind,  North  and  South,  East  and  West,  can  regard  the 
prowess  of  the  soldiery  of  both  sections  and  the  grand 
achievements  of  the  military  leaders  on  both  sides  and  do 
justice  alike  to  all,  regardless  of  the  cause  or  section  rep- 
resented, as  representative  types  of  American  character 
and  American  greatness;  when  that  time  comes,  and  the 
popular  heart  is  moved  but  by  one  impulse  of  devotion  to 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  then  will  the  memory  of 
Mr.  Johnson  live  in  the  hearts  of  the  masses  of  our  coun- 
trymen, and  then  his  faults,  from  which  none  are  exempt, 
shall  cease  to  be  remembered. 

The  question  being  taken  on  the  resolutions  offered  by 
Mr.  McFarland,  they  were  agreed  to  unanimously. 

And  accordingly  (at  four  o'clock  and  thirty  minutes 
p.  m.)  the  House  adjourned. 


